I'm very hopeful that my message
tonight will be helpful to you and to me. I feel a personal
need for this message. I hope that it's beneficial to
all of us. Turn back to I Thessalonians
5. I've selected two words. Now, this has been a a very difficult
week. It's been a long week already,
a very heavy schedule. I spoke three times Sunday and
twice Monday. This is the second time today,
and so I'm not going to try to do a lot of preaching. I'm going
to try to talk a little bit to you out of my heart some things
that I feel, and I trust that the Lord will honor and that
he will anoint It could be a very profitable service for us if
we can learn the truth that I'm dealing with. It says here in
1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16, Rejoice continually. Rejoice
continually. Now, William Cowper wrote a hymn
one time, one verse of which says this, Where is the joy?
The word rejoice, of course, is joy. Have joy continually. Rejoice continually. Where is
the joy that first I knew when first I found the Lord? Where
is the joy that once I knew when first I found the Lord? That sweetheart love, that first
few months or years After I was converted, where is the soul-refreshing
view of Jesus and his Word? David prayed something like that.
He said, O Lord, restore unto me the joy, the joy of my salvation,
the joy of thy salvation. I'm not talking about losing
one's salvation now. I don't believe joy is essential
to salvation. I believe Christ is. I'm not
saying that joy is essential to salvation. I'm saying that
Christ is essential to salvation. We're in Christ. We've been redeemed
by Christ. We belong to him. We're his.
I am his and he is mine. But here the man after God's
own heart is complaining about losing something that is important
to him. the joy of his salvation, the
joy, that rejoicing, rejoicing continually, that communion and
fellowship and sweetness. You know how it is sometimes
in the home when things aren't just right, and there's a barrier,
there's a coldness, there's a between you and those those you love,
that you don't want, you're still related, you're still married.
But there's not that joy. There's not that greeting. There's not that communion. And
that's what David's talking about here, and that's what Calper's
talking about. Where's the joy that once I knew,
when first I found the Lord? Where's that soul-refreshing
view of Christ and his fellowship and his word and fellowship with
his people? And that's what David is talking
about when he's crying that the Lord would restore unto him that
joy, that honeymoon fellowship. When you weep together joyfully,
when you laugh together joyfully, when you struggle together joyfully,
but when things are not right, even blessings become bitterness. When things aren't right, even
good things are bad things. You've got to have that joy.
See, if the joy is there, the good is better and the bad is
good. Do you follow what I'm saying? Now, there are a lot
of things that can rob us of the joy of our salvation. There
are a lot of things that contribute to this. I've jotted down a few,
trying to think where you are and where I am. Business responsibilities. I know, I feel for you men who
are in business. I want to talk directly to you.
I want to minister to you tonight because I feel for you. When we were walking through
that place of business, Don, the other night, I thought, how
does he stand the pressure? How does he stand the responsibility?
All the hundred and some odd people there and the responsibility
of their getting along, of their doing their job, of their meeting
the payroll, of all these different things. And I know business responsibilities
and And failures and successes and fears and doubts and all
these things, they'll drive a wedge between you and the Lord, you
and that joy, if you let them. And just the routine, you other
men who don't have the responsibility for a large company, you have
the responsibility of just making a living. Now, just making a
living is a responsibility. Just meeting bills, just paying
bills, just making a living. That responsibility of it, that
routine of it, that grind of it, and the uncertainty of the economic
situation, uncertainty of this meal. Yes, I'm pointing out things
that will contribute to losing that joy, that rejoicing in Christ. Now, they will. And then family
responsibility. You take mothers with small babies,
just the constant 24-hour care of a baby, seven days a week,
365 days a year. The constant care, the routine,
the having to have meals and clothes and cleaning houses and
all of these things, that family responsibility can drag you down,
can bring you down into a state of depression. And it rob you
of joy, the joy of salvation. It will do that. Raising teenagers
will rob you of the joy of salvation. If you ever had a teenager, they
can take you the highest and the lowest, the fastest of any
people on earth, you know. And it can. You say, well, that
doesn't affect a man's relationship with God. Tell me it doesn't.
Tell me it doesn't. I came with my hair of resigning
this church over a teenager. It can take you so low that you
want to quit, quit living, even. And it can do that. And conflict
with employees, fellow employees. You can get up in the morning,
read your Bible, have prayer, go to work, and have a head-on
conflict with a fellow employee or a business associate. And
where is the joy? What happened to my joy? That's
right. It's every day. illness, depression,
discouragement, the body, pain of the body, headaches. This
old body has these pains. These are things that contribute
to it. This is living. This is life.
These are trials. Let's face it. They're there.
We deal with them every day. You deal with them more than
I do. I live in a cocoon to a certain extent. I'm protected from a
lot of these things. I'll tell you something else.
We keep talking about the bad things. There's some good things
that can rob you of your joy. And this rejoicing, this fellowship
with Christ, success. Success. Spurgeon said that.
He said, for every man I've seen fall through poverty, I've seen
50 fall through success. Acclaim. Acclaim. Some men can't stand it. They
just can't stand promotion. They can't stand acclaim. They
can't stand prosperity. They can't stand riches. They
can't stand having any authority. It goes to their heads. They
get lifted up, and no lifted up man can have joy. There's
only joy in himself, and there's no joy in yourself. There's no
joy in self. And disappointments. Disappointments
in loved ones, disappointments in friends. We usually have a
higher standard for everybody else than we do for ourselves,
and so we're easily disappointed. We build these requirements for
others that we don't even meet ourselves. Like Christ said of
the Pharisees, they bind about you burdens they can't even bear.
They put around your neck things that they don't even carry. But
we set a higher standard for others than we do for ourselves.
We're very seldom disappointed in ourselves, but we're disappointed
in others. Then loneliness. Loneliness. Rob's a person of joy. It's being
alone, not having a friend, not having someone to talk with,
someone to share things with. Somebody asked me one time, what
is a friend? Well, I think the definition
that I have on my wall in there is one of the best definitions
of a friend you can find. It's the joy of being with a
person with whom you don't have to weigh either your thoughts
or your words. The joy of being with a person with whom you don't
even have to weigh your thoughts or your words. They love you
like you are. And then, no Christian fellowship. Danny, you're going through some
of this right now. Just down there in that place where it's
a famine. A famine-infested land, a wilderness, and if you're not
careful, they'll take you down with them. In other words, a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. You can put a good apple
in a barrel of rotten apples and they won't all become good. But you can put a rotten apple
in the barrel of a good apple and they'll all become rotten.
See, leaven has a way of taking us down. It's so much easier
for them to take us down than it is for us to take them up.
The grace of God has to take them up. It's like I said here
one time, what explains that is this. A saved man has two natures,
flesh and spirit. An unsaved man has one nature,
flesh. So when this man is with this
man, This man only has one nature, flesh. This man has two. So he
has a nature to which our nature appeals, and his nature appeals
to us. You see what I'm saying? But
he doesn't have a spiritual nature, so you can't take him anywhere.
You can't do it. You often wonder, young people
will associate with people of the world, you know, and say,
well, why can't I lift them? They can sure take me down. Because
they don't have a nature that appeals to your spiritual nature.
But you do have a nature that appeals to that, and that's what
does it. And no Christian fellowship,
old age, as you get older, you know, you get, it has a way of,
being saved a long time has its disadvantages. Yeah, it does,
and right in this area, right here, being a Christian a long
time, you know, it's that attitude, well, I've heard that before,
you know, and somebody says, have you read? Yeah, I've read
that. this sort of thing. Well, that young believer, everything
he sees, he grabs. Everything that brings him a
little joy, every meeting, he runs to every meeting. He delights
in every message. He gets something out of every
song. But we've been saved a long time, you know. We sit back,
and we've been here before, and God help us. Probably where we'll
wind up, too. I'll tell you something else.
that leads to losing the joy, and that is our own thoughts,
the things that go through our minds, the things we think, the
things we think. I'll tell you another thing,
busy, getting too busy, too busy. Some of us are just too busy
to read the Word, then I'm too busy. I'm just too busy to attend
the services, then I'm too busy. I'm just too busy to pray, I'm
too busy to fellowship with other people about the things of the
Lord. You're too busy. And I'll tell you this, people,
that's exactly right, even our friends, even our friends, even
our friends, you know, how many of us How many of us have a positive
attitude about the things of life, and the things of God,
and the things of the church, and the things of home? How many
of us really have a... You examine your own self, and
think about your own spirit. Now, do you have a positive attitude,
a joyful attitude, a joyful spirit? I was sitting in a study one
day, and I guess seven or eight people had been through there,
and it was... Everybody that came through had some bad news.
Everybody that came through. Long in the afternoon, Trish
and Ron came over to make some tapes, and she came in to study
and said, Henry, can I see you a moment? I said, if you've got
good news, you can't. If you've got bad news, just
go on back in the tape room. I had all I could stand. I had
all the bad news I could stand. I tell you, just looking into
the faces of a congregation, there's some people whose attitude
would make an angel lose its joy. That's exactly right. Make an angel lose his joy. Just
rob him of it. Some just have that negative
approach, that negative attitude. Something got a cut, got a wound,
got a spear, you know, got a hurt. Instead of lifting, lift, exhorting
one another, encouraging one another, singing together in
hymns of praise and spiritual songs, with joy in your heart
unto the Lord. That's what we're talking about.
And this is a thing we've got to fight. And I'm going to deal
with it tonight here from 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16. It says here, Rejoice
continually. Rejoice continually. And I'm
going to go to work on it. Rejoice continually. Joy in the
Lord. I just, I believe we ought not
let these things, whatever they are, whatever place they occupy
in our lives, whatever, whatever they are, we just don't let them
rob us of the joy of our Lord and the joy of his salvation
and the rejoicing, finding something to rejoice in, instead of finding
something to be critical and finding something to make us
blue and sad. That's no indifferent matter
really. This is not an indifferent matter. Turn to, if you will,
to Numbers. Actually, actually, did you know
that God's judgment and wrath, Numbers 14, that God's judgment
and wrath fell upon Israel, fell upon Israel many times because of their murmuring
and complaining? Did you know? I mean, I mean
wrath. Weren't the fiery serpents the
cause of their murmuring against the Lord? That's exactly right.
They murmured, found fault with God's providence, and He destroyed
them. And here in Numbers 14, listen
to this, murmuring, murmuring. He said in verse 27 of Numbers
14, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which
murmur against me? I've heard the murmurings of
the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto
them, As I live, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you've
spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall
fall in the wilderness, and all that were numbered of you according
to your whole number from twenty years old upward, which have
murmured against me." How many times do you use that word? Four
times in three verses. Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur,
murmur. Now, the scriptures are filled
with exhortations not to murmur, but to praise God. Praise God. Let's look at some of them. Do
you mind flipping through your Bible there? This is more important
than anything that I shall say about it, but look at 2 Samuel
22.4. Now, here's what I'm talking about. In any situation under
any circumstances, And these situations and circumstances,
my friend, I own and I recognize. And I recognize yours are as
great as mine. And I recognize that these situations
and circumstances are not only in us, but they're about us.
And the burdens get heavy and the clouds get dark. And the
loneliness you can cut. And people's eyes and attitude
and spirit and their words wound and hurt. Words are sharper,
sharper than blunt instruments. They hurt much more, much more. And just the look out of an eye,
just the desertion of a friend, these things wound. But we must
not, we must not let it rob us of our joy. I must not. I must
not let circumstances affect my relationship with him. I must
not let people, I must not let them take away that joy, that
rejoicing, that communion with Christ. We must not do it. Must
not. We become ineffective. It becomes
a sin. We become ineffective as servants
of our Lord when we do 2 Samuel 22 forward. And we might tell
people that sometimes. It wouldn't hurt. I'm not going
to let you rob me of my joy. I'm not going to do it. I'm not
going to let you take away that joy, that rejoicing in Christ.
Now, if you want to be a critic and a complainer and a murmur
and a fault finder, if you want to be a person that is harmful
to the fellowship of the people of God, sowing discord among
brethren which God hates, you do it. I'm not going to let you
drag me down. I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. I'm going to walk
in that sweetheart love. But we must do that, must learn
to. He says in 2 Samuel 22, 4, I
will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall
I be saved from my enemies. I'm going to call on God. He's
worthy to be praised. I'm going to rejoice in the Lord.
Let's look at another, 1 Chronicles 16. 1 Chronicles 16, verse 31. 1 Chronicles 16, 31. Listen to
this. Oh, I like this right here. 1 Chronicles 16, beginning with
verse 31. Let the heavens be glad. Be glad,
not sad, not discouraged. Let the earth rejoice. And let
men say among the heathen, The Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar,
and the fullness thereof, let the fields rejoice, and all that
is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods
sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge
the earth. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for he is mercy." And Brother Barnett said one
time, just leave out that word, endureth, it's in italics. He
is mercy. Not only endureth forever, it's
from forever. It's forever to forever. So His
mercy, give thanks for His mercy forever. That's where our hope
is anyway. Our hope's not in men. It's not
in the arm of the flesh. It's not in the support of friends.
David said, if my mother and father forsake me, that'd be
all right. The Lord will take me up. He'll never forsake me. So our hope's not in their friendship
anyway. Our hope is not in their support.
Our hope is not in their strength. Our hope is in Christ. all of
our hope, not part of it, all of it. In 1 Chronicles 23.30,
listen to this. 1 Chronicles 23.30, I like this
right here. And one writer I was reading
said this is the morning and evening sacrifice. And to stand
every morning to thank and praise the Lord. And likewise in the
evening. To stand every morning and thank
and praise the Lord. And incidentally in the evening
too. Thank Him and praise Him. Thank Him and praise Him. Let's
look at some of the Psalms. Of course, the Psalms, if you
want to talk about praising the Lord, if you want to talk about
rejoicing continually, if you want to talk about just stop
right now while we're reading this script, is this my spirit?
Is this your spirit and attitude? Well, if it's not, it ought to
be. All the way through the Word. And I got out Nave's topical
Bible, and if you do that, if you have one of them, everybody
ought to have a Nave's topical Bible who studies the Scriptures,
I think. But if you get out your Nave's
topical Bible, turn to the word praise. Just the word praise.
I tell you, the Bible has a whole lot more to say about praising
the Lord than it does about judgment even. Praise, praise, praise
on every page. In Psalm 33, listen. Psalm 33,
1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,
for praise is comely, it's comely for the upright. Praise the Lord
with heart, sing unto Him with a psaltery, instrument of ten
strings, sing unto Him a new song, play skillfully with a
loud voice. You know, a lot of times I look
over a congregation, we're singing hymns, and some people are standing
there like this. Well, I know everybody can't
sing. I know everybody can't sing. But now let me tell you
something. You can look at the words. You
can open a book. There is a time of praise. You
can open a book. And you can say the words of
the song even if you don't sing them. But when the people of
God are praising God, if you're one of his people, you ought
to praise him too. If you croak like a frog, just go right ahead,
but praise the Lord. Not the beauty of your voice
that he hears anyway, it's your sincere heart. Isn't that right?
But don't stand there like a mummy with your arms folded as if you're
mad at God and everybody else, you know. I tell you, Michael
and some of these fellows that led the singing around, he can
tell you, that's hard leading the singing when you look out
there and folks standing there looking at you like a calf at a new gate
or something, you know. But you can, that's right, you
can take the book and you can open the book and you can at
least look at the words, can't you James? You can look at the
words and think about them and praise God. That's what it says
here, praise, look at Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord when things
are going my way. No, at all times. I'll bless
the Lord when everybody's my friend. No sir, at all times.
I'll bless the Lord when I'm making good money, no sir, at
all times. I'll bless the Lord when I'm happy, no sir, I'll
bless the Lord when I'm sad, at all times. His praise shall
continually, continually, continually be in my mouth. My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord, and the humble shall hear thereof,
and they'll be glad with me." But boy, when they hear you griping,
you take them down with you. You sure do. I think people ruin
my whole day. I know you have too. Just take
you down. One of what he's mad about, one of what he's upset
about, one of what's troubling him, you know. You go home, lie
there on the bed, like, one of what I said to hurt his feelings.
You ever do that? Sure you do. But we ought not
do that. We ought not do it. We ought
not do it to others. It's not right. But when I praise
the Lord, and when I rejoice in the Lord, other people hear
it, and they rejoice in the Lord. But when I complain and find
fault, then it takes them down with me. I've done my bit that
day to turn somebody away from God. Verse 3, O magnify the Lord
with me. Magnify Him with me. Let's exalt
His name together. Let's do it together. Well, there's one thing about
it. The Lord Jesus said, if you're not for me, you're against me.
If you don't turn the thoughts of men to God, you turn them
away from God, but no man's an island. You can't do it. Your
attitude and your spirit will either lift someone or take them
down. Everybody you come in contact with, if you're with them very
long, you're going to influence them for God or for evil. You're
going to influence their spirit toward happiness or depression.
And some of you are doing the opposite, depression. You're
hurtful to the Kingdom of God, enemies of the cross of Christ. Verse 6 and 7. Sing praises to
God. Sing praises. Sing praises unto
our King. Sing praises. He just keeps on
saying it. Verse 7 of Psalm 47. God is King
of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. Meaning. Meaning. And then Psalm 67. Turn over
here to Psalm 67. Psalm 67, 3 and 4. Listen to
this. Let the people praise Thee, O
God, let all the people praise Thee. Psalm 67, 3. O let the
nations be glad and sing for joy, for Thou shalt judge the
people righteously and govern the nations upon earth. Let the
people praise Thee, O God, let all the people praise Thee. Then
shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, will
bless us. God will bless us, and all the
ends of the earth shall fear him. God will bless us. When
we offer to him the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving and
joy, he promises blessings. Psalm 69, quickly, let's find
another one here. Psalm 69, verse 30. I will praise
the name of God. with a song. I'll magnify him
with thanksgiving. I'm going to do it. Psalm 71, listen to this one. Psalm 71 verse 8. Let my mouth
be filled with thy praise. Not with criticism, gossip, slander,
hurtful sayings. Let my mouth be filled with his
praise and with his honor all the day. all the day. Psalm 92. Let's go over there
just for one here, and then I'll move on quickly. Psalm 92, verse
1. Listen, it's a good thing. It's
a good thing to give thanks to God. It's a good thing to sing
praises unto thy name, O Most High. You know, I know we can
think of a lot of reasons to be down. You can think right
now, right now. You say, well, you know, things
are tough right now. First, you don't know. I know
that. I realize that. But I know we can think of a
lot of reasons to be depressed, and we can think of a lot of
reasons to be blue, but I can give you a lot of reasons to
be joyful. I can give you a heap more reasons to be joyful than
you can give me for being blue. Let me give you some, just a
few. I can turn to Matthew, first
of all, chapter 5. I can give you reasons for a
state of continual joy. I don't care how dark the valley,
how rough the road, I don't care how heavy the burden, I don't
care how severe the trial, I don't care how much the tears, I can
give you a lot of reasons for being joyfully, joyful continually,
happy in Christ. I've tried to put this shoe on
here, and I found it fits. And I'm preaching to myself.
Now, I'm not preaching only to you. You're preaching to me.
I'm as deficient in this area as anybody, but I don't want
to be. You say, this type of attitude,
it's not possible. Well, perhaps not, but it's commanded
anyhow. It's commanded. And if we can
find it, we can lay hold of it, there's some blessings go along
with it. He said in Matthew 5.11, blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake. Hang down your head and weep.
No, rejoice. Rejoice. Resign and quit. No, rejoice and be glad. Be glad
for their reviling you. Be glad for their speaking evil
against you. Be glad of it. For great is your
reward in heaven, for they persecuted prophets ever since Abel. They've
been killing God's prophets ever since God's had one. So you just
be glad if you've gone out and witnessed to your family, and
witnessed to your friends, and witnessed to your co-laborers,
and witnessed to others, and they make fun of you, and mock
you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you.
Rejoice! They've been in the profit-killing
business for years, and you're counted worthy to suffer along
with men like Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and John the Baptist, and the
rest of them. Isn't that something to be glad about? I'd heap rather
be with that crowd than with that other crowd. If you're bearing
some persecution for Christ's sake, be glad. You're in good
company. That's a good evidence that God's hand's upon you. Woe
unto you when all men speak well of you. That's when you better
worry. That's when you better hang down
your head in Christ when everybody's begging on you. But if they're
persecuting you and saying all manner of evil against you, they've
been doing that for years, rejoice. Be glad, exceedingly glad. Turn
to Luke 10. Listen to this one. Here's another
reason to be joyful in Luke chapter 10 and reading verse 17, Luke
10, 17. It says here, listen to it, the
disciples came back from their missionary journey. They returned
with joy saying, Lord, Luke 10, 17, even the devil is a subject
unto us through your name. And he said, I beheld Satan as
lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give you power to tread
on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.
Nothing shall by any means hurt you, notwithstanding in this
rejoice not." This is nothing to be all up in there about rejoicing
that the spirit demons are subject to you. You rejoice that your
names are written in heaven. Oh, my name written in glory,
my name. That ought to be enough ammunition
to keep you all day tomorrow, shouldn't it? That ought to be
enough to make you sing through the night, my name is written
in heaven, my name is written in heaven. That's the thing to
rejoice about. John 14, here's another one.
John 14, want something to rejoice, some reason to rejoice when everything
is the blackest? All right, look at John 14, and
let's read verse 27 and 28. Peace I leave with you, Christ
said. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world give it, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. You've heard how I said to you,
I go away and come again unto you. If you love me, you rejoice,
because I said, I'm going to the Father. I'm going to the... You know, we have our representative,
our Lord, who has gone into the very presence of the Father,
to lay claim, to stake a claim in our name. He's gone as our
forerunner into heaven. There's a man in glory who's
entered in as our representative and taken it, and he said he's
preparing a place for us. Well, that ought to give us the
greatest of joy. Turn to Romans 5, right along
with this scripture here. Romans 5, verse 1. I preached
on this Sunday night. Romans 5, verse 1. being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom we have access. We're justified, we have peace
with God, we have access to the throne of grace wherein we stand
in this grave and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now
that's a reason to rejoice, the hope of the glory of God. And
then in Philippians, did you know this, and I'm going to run
over this quickly, I wish you had a yellow pencil or a blue
pencil or something so you could mark this. I just found this
out just yesterday and today. The word rejoice is used in the
book of Philippians, Bill, ten times. Ten times. Let's just run down just a few
of them here. What then? Notwithstanding in every way,
whether in pretense or truth, Christ is preached, and I do
rejoice. Yea, and I will rejoice. I rejoice
that Christ is preached. I don't care if men preach Him
out of contention or envy or whatever. I just rejoice that
men are preaching Christ. Chapter 2, verse 16. There's
twice right there. Chapter 2, verse 16. Holding
forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ. Rejoice in the day of Christ.
Verse 17, yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service
of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. Verse 18, for the
same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. Verse 28, look
at this one, I sent him therefore the more carefully that when
you see him again, you may rejoice. Rejoice that I may be the less
sorrowful. Chapter 3, verse 1. Finally,
brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Verse 3. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Have
no confidence in the flesh. Chapter 4, verse 4. Look at it.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say one more time, tenth
time. Bet somebody here, rejoice. Rejoice. And then Peter, I'll turn to
1 Peter. I'm not going to give you all
of this. I've prepared a whole outline on this, but I'm not
going to give it all to you. I'm going to let you read it
yourself later and just chew on it a little bit. It's Peter,
somebody called it his sevenfold prayer of praise. One of you
preachers can get a sermon on this, and I've got one here to
outline, but it's Peter's sevenfold prayer of praise, starting with
verse 3. He blesses God. He said, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant
mercy, bless God for His mercy. The believer knows nothing of
merit. He blesses God for His mercy. Barnard, you say anything
this side of hell is mercy, and we ought to bless God for it.
And then bless God for the new birth He hath begotten us, a
new birth. And then bless God for a living
hope. Sharon, since I preached that
message this afternoon, I've been looking over some scripture,
and this thing is over and over again. It's a living hope. There's
no death to the believer. I said that at Jeff's funeral
this afternoon. Death hath no dominion over a believer. When
our Lord referred to a believer who's left this earth, he said
he's sleeping. He's sleeping. He's sleeping. And as I studied
and brought that message, you got a hold of something that
has blessed me as much as anything I've ever studied or preached?
These scriptures, I've never quite laid hold on them. When
Christ said, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die,
he that keepeth my saying shall never die, he that keepeth my
saying shall never taste of death, I'll never die. Now my body's
going to sleep. When you say dead, When you say
dead, what do you mean when you say dead? If I came in to Doris
tomorrow and I said, that apple tree out there in the yard is
dead, she'd know one thing, it'll never bloom, it'll never bear
fruit, it's dead. Only one thing to be done with
it, cut it down. But now there's some trees in my yard that look
dead this time of year. We're not going to cut those
down because they're going to bloom. Death is without life. God is life. Death is without
God. Death is without hope of life,
without strength. That's dead. But the believer,
when Christ Jesus died on the cross and was buried and rose
again, he put death away. And there is no death for the
believer. It's a living hope. Everywhere I turn now, I see
that. I'm to a living hope. I thank God for his mercy, for
the new birth, for the living hope, for the resurrection of
Christ, because he lives, I live. And then verse 4, thank God for
that inheritance, that wonderful inheritance. Incorruptible, everything
I have here is corruptible. Undefiled, everything I have
here is touched with sin. That fate is not away, everything
I have here I won't have long. It's reserved. Did you ever call
a restaurant and say, we're coming down to eat dinner, seven of
us. hold us a table, they're put on table reserved. People
come in and start to sit down and wait, say, can't sit there,
that's reserved. Somebody else come in and start, can't sit
there, that's reserved. He's coming, and that's reserved.
He tells me that there's a place in glory, Mike, reserved. Got
my name on it, my name. And it's preserved for me. I
tell you, bless God, Next, bless God for preservation, verse 5,
we're kept, we're kept by the power of God. By no less than
the power of God. No, I'll never perish. Because
no preachers keeping me, and no theologians keeping me, and
no experiences keeping me, and no denominations keeping me,
I'm kept by the power of God. And I'll never perish. Never,
never, never, never. And thank God for that salvation
that's ready to be revealed, that future glory ready to be
revealed. Now let me show you something
that will help you and I'll quit. 1 Peter 1.8. Now here's where most of
us are. You say, I'm not the outgoing
type. I'm not the type of fellow that
clicks his heel and claps his hand over anything. You can tell
me that I just inherited $100,000, and I'd say, well, I'm grateful. I bet you would. But anyway,
I'm not the outgoing type. I'm not the explosive type. I'm
just a quiet type person. So now, how am I going to rejoice
in the Lord? Well, here it is, 1 Peter 1.8. Whom having not
seen, you love. In whom though now you see him
not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable. and full of glory. It's an attitude
of heart. That's where it is anyway. A
lot of times the fellows always go around saying, praise the
Lord, hallelujah. He's not really praising God
anyhow. That's just a form that he got
into. That's just a rut he got into.
So really and truly, this thing is not the quantity of words
and all, it's the quality of thought. It's an attitude. And this is where repentance
is, this is where faith is, this is where joy is, this is where
rejoicing. An attitude. A bitter spirit
drives the bones. Not just bitter words, a bitter
spirit. But a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Doeth good
for you and for everybody around you. So for God's glory and for
your good and for the good of others, reach out and lay hold
upon a merry heart. But a merry heart's in Christ.
Rejoice, not just rejoice, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice continually. Rejoice
evermore. And again I say rejoice. Let's
do it. Let's do it. And you'll have
those times when it's downhill. But now let's stop the skids.
It's our own fault anyway. We've got so much to be thankful
for. Like one of these men said to me in a study recently, he
said, God's blessed me so much in my life, if he never gives
me another blessing, he still blessed me enough. And that's
right. I've got enough to be thankful for. So let's just grab
hold here, and thank God, and let it spread, and let it reach
out, and let it touch the lives of others, encourage them. Let
none of us be the cause of a broken heart. Let's say something to
lift somebody. Our Father, we're thankful for
your Word. Oh, what your Word does for us. It's like a refreshing breeze.
It's like a cool, clear, deep spring. It's like a drink of
cool, clear water on a hot day. It's like a shady, shady tree
under the burning sun. Your Word is like a lamp unto
our feet and a light unto our path in a dark, dark night. These things are all there, all
these promises, these precious, great and precious promises.
Your word is true. Let everybody be a liar and let
God be true. Let us bow before the word. Lord,
give us this spirit of rejoicing, this heart of gladness, this
spirit of happiness, that we may be a blessing to
others instead of a hurtful and harmful and discouraging Lord,
use us for your glory. Get glory through us. Deliver
us from murmuring and finding fault. We're blessed above all
the people on the face of this earth, and yet we complain so
much. Help us, forgive us, and lead
us by your blessed spirit. We pray a special prayer for
our friends who are sick tonight. Perform a miracle. Work a miracle
for your grace, by your grace and for your glory and our good.
We commit them unto thee. Bless your word. Make it effectual
where there's a heart to receive it. Make it effectual where there's
plowed ground that'll enable it to grow. I know it'll fall
among the thorns and on fallow ground and among the rocks, but
Lord, there's good ground out there and bless it for your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.