Rejoicing In the Lord

Q: What does the Bible say about rejoicing in the Lord?

The Bible emphasizes that we should rejoice in the Lord always, reflecting a deep-seated joy rooted in His sovereignty and grace. The Bible clearly instructs believers to rejoice in the Lord always, as seen in Philippians 4:4. This joy is not merely an emotional response to circumstances but instead is a profound conviction that God is sovereign over all aspects of life, including pain and heartache. Paul urges in Philippians 3:15 that those who are spiritually mature should hold this conviction. True rejoicing stems from acknowledging God's eternal purpose and His merciful character, not from superficial or emotional displays of excitement.

Q: How do we know God’s sovereignty is true?

God's sovereignty is affirmed through Scripture, which reveals His control over all creation for His purposes. The doctrine of God's sovereignty is a fundamental truth of Scripture, underscoring that He is in control of everything that happens. Verses like Romans 8:28 affirm that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. This indicates that nothing occurs outside of His divine will and plan. Furthermore, God's dealings throughout history, such as His covenant promise to David in 2 Samuel 7, demonstrate His firm control and faithfulness in fulfilling His promises toward His people. Trusting in His sovereignty allows believers to rejoice even in challenging situations, reinforcing that He has a purpose in every trial.

Q: Why is spiritual maturity important for Christians?

Spiritual maturity allows Christians to hold firm convictions and rejoice in the Lord despite life's challenges. Spiritual maturity is vital in a believer's walk because it shapes their understanding of God and His promises. In Philippians 3:15, Paul addresses those who are spiritually mature to hold the same convictions he does. Maturity equips Christians to discern truth from error and to uphold their faith in tumultuous times. It enables them to rejoice in the Lord not based on external circumstances but grounded in the deep knowledge of who God is and what He has done. Such maturity leads to a life of unwavering joy that reflects the glory of Christ in all situations.

13 of the New Testament epistles,
and if he's the writer of Hebrews, he wrote 14 of them. There are
27 books in the New Testament, and God used this faithful apostle
to write perhaps 14 of them. And the one that we're looking
at tonight, he wrote from prison in his last days upon the earth. He was in prison in Rome. when
he wrote this epistle to the church at Philippi. And these
were his thoughts, his convictions, directed by the Spirit of God
to be recorded in the Word of God. These were his convictions.
And he says in verse 15, Philippians 3, he said, Let us therefore
as many as be perfect. Now, I don't have to tell you
None of us are perfect, and Paul didn't consider himself perfect,
because he says in verse 12, not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. So he's not saying he's perfect,
nor is he assuming that we are. But the word is maturity, spiritual
maturity here in this verse. It has to be, it just has to
be. So he said, let us therefore as many as be spiritually mature.
And I think most of us here consider ourselves to have some spiritual
maturity, don't we? If we don't, we should have.
We've been around long enough to have some. So Paul writes here in verse
15, Let us therefore, as many as be spiritually mature, be
thus minded. Now look that up in the Amplified,
and it says, Hold the same convictions. be thus minded is to hold the
same convictions. So what he is saying here in
this third chapter, he concludes with this thought, if you're
spiritually mature, this is what you believe, and these are the
convictions you hold, and these are convictions I hold, because
I do regard myself to some extent to have some understanding of
the way of God, and to be spiritually mature. So he says, finally,
my brethren, let's go back to verse 1, finally, this is sort
of a, finally, you know, finally, this is sort of the, let me sum
up what I've been saying, finally, let me sum up what I've preached,
let me sum up what I've written, let me sum it up, brethren, finally,
and you be thus minded, rejoice in the Rejoice in the Lord. Now, we're running head on into,
and Tom didn't know I was going to bring this message tonight
when he read that scripture and made those opening comments, but we're running head on against
the current, against what's happening in our day, in our generation
in religion. Many religionists today cry rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. But Paul didn't say rejoice. Paul said rejoice in the Lord. And that's different. He didn't
just say rejoice. It's popular to rejoice. That's
what you said when you opened the statement. You're not in
the dark. You watch some of these programs.
You see all the so-called religious enthusiasm
and zeal and excitement, the hand-waving and the swaying and
the tambourines and the hallelujahs and the praise the Lord and the
running up and down the aisles and the preachers acting almost like monkeys in
a cage in the pulpit. They're just, you've been watching,
you know, that's the trend today. In other words, this is what
they imply. If you don't, while I'm preaching
here, some of you are supposed to be hollering, preach it brother,
and that's the truth, and amen, and hallelujah. You're not supposed
to be listening, you're supposed to be just popping off with all
these statements. And somebody's supposed to be
waving, and you're supposed to be clapping and carrying on.
They say if you don't, the church is dead. Isn't that the assumption
they draw? If you don't have a lot of this
A lot of the so-called excitement and a lot of the so-called doing your thing and interjecting
your words, then the church is dead, it's cold. But Paul, this
is not what Paul is saying, just rejoice, just make noise, just
get excited and enthused and wave your arms. He says rejoice
in the Lord, in the Lord. Now, my friends, this may or
may not involve an outward demonstration. It may or may not involve words. It may or may not involve any
outward visible sign to those around you. You see, if you turn
to 2 Samuel 7, 2 Samuel chapter 7, Nathan had
been to David and announced to him, you remember, Thou art the
man? You remember that visit? And Nathan had just concluded
his message to David with these words in verse 15. Now, David
was in a mess. in deep, deep trouble, he'd greatly
sinned against God. And Nathan had told him, he told
him this, listen, verse 15. But my mercy shall not depart
away from David, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before
thee. And thine house and thy kingdom
shall be established forever before me. Now here, God said
through Nathan to David, I'm not going to do to you what I
did to Saul. put your house away and you away,
and we'll be merciful. And your kingdom and your house
will be forever. Your throne will be forever.
According to all these words and according to all this vision,
did Nathan speak to David? Now, what was David's response?
He just announced to him, God's going to show mercy to you and
mercy to your house for it. God's forgiven all your sins.
God's put away all this mess that you've gotten yourself involved
in. Did David leap over a chair?
Did he throw his hands around and holler, hallelujah, praise
the Lord, whoopee, let's have a feast? No solace in the next
verse. Then went King David in and sat
before the Lord. And he said, Who am I? O Lord God, and what is my house
that thou spakest me hitherto? Now, there is a man rejoicing. in the mercy of God. There is
a man rejoicing in the grace of God. There is a man rejoicing
in the promise of God, but a quiet man, and a broken man, and a
solemn man, but a man who is in tune with the very heart of
God Almighty. Job. God favored Job with revelation
of himself. He told Job, sit down, I'm going
to talk to you. I'm going to show you who I am.
And he proceeded in about three chapters of showing Job his might
and his power and his glory. Did he not? What was Job's reaction? He put his hand over his mouth. He didn't shout or holler or
carry on or wave his arms. This is a man with whom God had
just shared His very glory and power. And old Job put his hand
over his mouth, and he said, O God, I have heard of You by
the hearing of the ear. Now mine eyes see of Thee, wherefore
I hate myself. I repent, and sackcloth and ashes. I put my hand on my mouth. I
have spoken once, yea, twice. I will probably never speak again.
Isn't that what he said? I guarantee you he is rejoicing
in his heart. Isaiah, he said in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I literally, actually, in reality
saw God Almighty sitting on a throne. I lifted up. His glory filled
the temple. And the seraphims were flying
about the temple. I've got the throne of God crying,
holy, holy, holy. And I said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
don't hear these people saying, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. What about Thomas? The Lord Jesus stood before Thomas. And Thomas was doubtful about
the Lord's resurrection, and here the Lord erased all the
doubts. I mean, he cleared that. There wasn't any doubt whatsoever
that this is that same Jesus whom you crucified that was standing
right directly in the presence of Thomas, and he said, just
reach out your hand and touch my hand and thrust your hand
in the scar of my side. And Thomas never demonstrated
any hilarious or excitement, he fell at his
feet and looked up and I just imagine tears flowed as he said,
my Lord and my God. Brother, that's rejoicing. That's
rejoicing. It says over here in Ecclesiastes,
I quoted this this morning. I wouldn't mind if you'd turn
to it if you've never read it. Many of you have, but if you
never have read it, it should be read. And it should be underscored
in your Bible, and probably we need to read it quite often.
But Ecclesiastes 5 issues a strong warning against some of this
hilarity and foolishness. outward exhibitionism in the
house of God, in the presence of the Lord. In Ecclesiastes
5, verse 1, it says, keep your foot when you go into the house
of God. You be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not they do
evil. Be not rash with your mouth.
Let not your heart be hasty to utter anything before God. God's
in the heavens. Thou upon earth, therefore, let
thy words be carefully selected, and then they will be few. It's not just talking and carrying
on and excitement, and this is flesh. I just don't hesitate
a minute to identify. I love an amen. When Tom was
reading a while ago, I was blessed, and I said, Amen. But I didn't
disturb you in hearing Tom. I was in a meeting recently,
and the pastor called on a man. You were there. You experienced
this. The pastor called on a man to pray. I like to hear a man
pray, because I like to pray with him. As he prays to God
in my heart, I'm saying, That's what I want. Amen. I'm in agreement. So be it. And I'll sometimes
utter that under my breath or softly or something, and some
of you do. And that's wonderful. But I was in a meeting recently,
and the pastor called on a man to pray. And we wanted to hear. The man was a visiting minister,
wasn't he? And one gentleman in the congregation
wouldn't let us hear anything. He'd get started on making a
comment in his prayer, and it's, yes, Lord, amen, you know, oh,
that's good, you know. And I couldn't hear the man.
The prayer was totally defeated. You remember that, and we commented
on that. And that's not, please understand,
that's not rejoicing in the Lord. That's disturbing public worship.
That's what that is. And you remember some years ago,
we had a Bible conference here, and it became a real problem
for me to deal with. You remember that? When some
folks came in, and they may be sincere, they may mean well. Don't you want to hear what I'm
trying to say tonight, what I believe God's given me? I sat at the
house in my study, and I opened the Word, and, Lord, give me
a message. Give me something to help your people, to edify
your people, instruct your people, to teach your people. Well, how
are you going to hear if someone's down here hollering louder than
I am? And that's the same thing with babies. I insist that people
put their babies in the nursery, not because I don't like babies.
I love babies. But I can't out-preach a baby
now. And I worked on this message.
Please understand, when these men, when you preach, you're
already working on that message. That scripture he read tonight,
he told me tonight I'm working on a message. He told you that.
Time. Time is devoted to a message
that God gives us to preach to you, and one little two-year-old
can totally destroy that message. And that's not right. And I hear these preachers, people
say, well, my old-time preacher could out-shout a baby, but you
can't out-hear one when it's shouting, when the baby's screaming. And I'm just going to insist
on reverence for the benefit of men's souls. Our children
are going to behave, or they're going to be called down. Because
we're here dealing with serious business. There's souls being
dealt with by God's Spirit. And if faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. But what I'm saying is, we can
rejoice in the Lord. Now, flip your Bibles over to
Philippians 4.4. Philippians 4.4. It says, rejoice
in the Lord always. Not just when you're in church
building. Not just when some religious
cheerleader up here has got you whipped into a frenzy. Not when
some fellow has sung a song that's got your feet patting and your
brain throbbing and your Tylenol of no effect, you know, and you're
carrying on. That's not, he says, always rejoice
in the Lord, always. And again, I say rejoice tomorrow
when you get up and go to the factory. Rejoice in the Lord. Same Lord, same rejoicing, same
reasons. Isn't that right? Tomorrow when
you ladies get up and here's three children to get ready to
get off to school, and you're trying to get lunches packed,
and trying to get them to brush their teeth, which they don't
want to do, and trying to get them to wash their face, which they
don't want to do, and trying to get them to get out there
and catch that bus, they're going to be late, you know. Rejoicing
the Lord. Nobody's screaming and waving
and carrying on there, are they? It's all quiet on the western
front. But you rejoice in the Lord. Now, here's what I'm saying. To rejoice in the Lord is to
rejoice in His sovereignty at all times, His glory and His
majesty. I'm rejoicing in His sovereignty. I'm rejoicing in the Lord. I'm
not rejoicing in the pain I feel. I don't call on you to do that.
I'm not rejoicing in the heartache that has broken my spirit. I'm
rejoicing that the Lord in all these things is the first cause
of them, and He'll give me the grace to bear them, and His sovereign
purpose is for my good in this thing. And when I'm standing
beside the grave of a dear mother or father, and watch them lower
the casket, and they're gone. I'm not going to act a fool,
but I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. I'm going to rejoice that
this is no accident, be it a beloved son or daughter. When you mothers
go to the hospital to deliver a baby, and that baby is born
dead, rejoice in the Lord. When some of you have a pain
and you go to the doctor and he says, you've got to have open
heart surgery, some of you all know something about that. Come
on now. Why don't you run around the examination room and wave
in your hand and say, well, I'm just so glad. No, you're not
glad, you're sad. But you rejoice in the Lord,
that this is His, isn't that what I'm saying? So rejoice in
the Lord always, always. That whatever he sends our way,
because of the greatness of his person, and because of the power
of his arm, and because we're the object of his love, I can
rejoice in the Lord when the clouds are the heaviest, and
when the burden is the heaviest, and when the road is the roughest.
Now that's rejoicing. That's rejoicing. And secondly,
I rejoice not only in his sovereignty, his glory, and his might, I rejoice
in what this man was talking about a while ago, those covenant
mercies. Now, we're going to die. Bob
read a scripture in the study a while ago, and I underlined
this. David, was it David speaking? Yeah, he said, I'm one step from
death. One step. One step. But I tell you, even in that
hour, in one of these days, it's coming now, for many of us here. But I tell you, what are we going
to do? There's no religious cheerleader there, there's no singer there.
There's no preacher preaching a sermon. There's not a bunch
of people sitting around, you know, carrying on. I'm alone.
The clock's ticking on the wall. The family's gathered around
the room. The children are crying. The
doctor's there shaking his head. And I'm looking into eternity.
I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. I walked into the hospital room
the last time I saw my dear brother Charlie Payne alive on this earth. St. Mary's room where they prepared
for surgery. He was going to surgery in the
next few minutes, from which he never recovered, never saw
him again. And he knew that. I just feel
like he knew that, don't you? He was rejoicing in the Lord.
There wasn't any tambourines playing, there wasn't any religious
music going on. But that smile was on his face
and that peace was on his countenance. And when I hugged him and we
had prayer and I was turned to walk out of the room, he said,
Brother Henry, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. That's
the last words I heard him say. That's covenant mercy. He's my
shepherd. That's rejoicing in the Lord.
I'd rather have that than 10,000 of these folk to do me. 10,000. You take them. I don't want them. Outward exhibition. That's not
my nature. And it's not yours. And if Chuck
Stapleton and Susan jumped up and hollered tonight and waved
their arms, I'd call somebody. That's not your nature, is it?
And for me to expect that of you, And if you don't do that,
consider you cold and indifferent. It's for me to be a fool and
not to know anything about the truth of God. Rejoice in the Lord. David lay
dying. People were sad. It was a tough
time for Israel. They were losing their king.
He was going out of the world, going to glory. But he was lying
there saying, although it be not so with my house, God's made
with me an everlasting covenant, ordering all things in sure,
and in this is all my salvation and my desire. Haven't you been
there? Right close to it, haven't you?
Did you rejoice in the Lord? I know you did. I know you did. But it was in your heart and
in your spirit. That's right. You were standing
by him. Rejoice in His sovereignty, in His glory, in His majesty.
Rejoice in His covenant mercies. Rejoice in His incarnation. Do
you know something? For this old sinner, Christ came
to this earth. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in human flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. Oh, I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? He came to this earth to put
away our sins. He, in the beginning, was the
Word, and the Word was made flesh, and the Word was with God and
dwelt among us, and the Word was God, and we beheld His glory. Oh, I rejoice in that. I rejoice
in that every day, and I need to do it all through the day.
God's gift to us is the gift of His Son. And then I rejoice
in His perfect life. In Adam I die, in Christ I'm
made alive. By one man's sins and disobedience,
I was made a sinner. By another man's righteousness
and obedience, I was made holy. I rejoice in that. I want you
to turn with me to Luke chapter 5. I want you to look at this
verse here. Now here's the Apostle Peter.
I was just reading this, this afternoon even, Luke 5. going
over the message again, seeing if I could find something else
to help us. And I did, I think, in Luke chapter 5. You remember
this story when our Lord, when the disciples hadn't caught any
fish, and the Lord told them to launch out in the deep and
let down their net, and it says, verse 6, and when they had this
done, They enclosed a great multitude of fish and their net break,
and they beckoned to their partners, which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them. And they came and filled
both ships so that they began to sink. You know, sometimes I watch these preachers
and they're having these telethons and somebody gives an abundant
supply and, boy, they start hooping to doing it and throwing things,
you know, and running around. And here the disciples, the Lord
not only filled one ship, He filled two ships. I mean, He
abundantly. These men fish for a living.
And here He has doubled their take for the day. He just has
absolutely showered them with these things. What is Peter's
reaction? Next verse. When Simon Peter
saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees.
And he said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Doesn't that do something to
your spirit and your heart? The Lord had just shown Peter
his power, his great unlimited power and sovereignty, even over
fish in the sea. These men had caught nothing. Their take for the day was nothing. They had nothing to put on the
table for their children that night. And the Lord Jesus had
just filled both their boats. And the response of this dear
man who loved Christ, you know he loved Christ, you know he
said, you're the Son of God, he fell at his knees. There wasn't
any running up and down the seashore, and shouting and screaming, He
fell at his knees, and he'd been an observer of the power of God,
and he said, Lord, you don't need to be hanging around with
a fellow like me. What on earth are you doing hanging
around me? I'm such a sinner. I rejoice in his holiness, in
his glory, in his righteousness. I rejoice in his death. I tell
you, how does one rejoice in such a horrible, ignominious
death? You know, you've been watching
this television, Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and I
think many of us have felt quite embarrassed for Judge Clarence
Thomas, the things that have been said that he said, and he's
been humiliated and he's been embarrassed. I'm not talking
about who thinks who's right or wrong, but this man has been
destroyed. He's been humiliated. What he
has gone through is nothing to what my Lord went through for
me. They called him a devil, the son of God. They called him
a drunk. They called him a glutton. They
called him a son of Satan. Do you know that? They called
him everything they could. They spit in his face. They ran around the cross and
laughed while he died. They jeered and hooted him and
said, if you're the son of God, why don't you come down from
the cross and prove you're the Son of God. How can you rejoice
in that? Come on, stand by that cross
and start your arm waving, and your whoop-de-doo, and your religious
foolishness, and I'll call you a fool. But in here, knowing that his
shame he bore was my shame, and that guilt he bore was my guilt,
and that cross upon which he hangs is my cross, and that wrath
of heaven that fell upon him and the wrath of men and devils,
I rejoice in his death. I quietly and solemnly and truthfully
thank God for the death of my Lord. And I rejoice in it. That's rejoicing. That's rejoicing
in the Lord always. I'm giving you what I know the
scripture teachers, and I've gone through the scriptures,
and I've looked for any of this exhibitionism that we watch,
Paul, on this television thing for the last two weeks from Westminster
Chapel. And I fail to see any of that
in God's Word. Rather, when people are rejoicing
in the Lord, in the truth of God, in the gospel of God, in
the person of Christ, in His sovereignty, in His covenant
mercies, in His goodness to us, in His abundant grace to us,
in His perfect life, in His death, they are solemnly, seriously,
before God, on their faces, rejoicing. Oh, I get glad and happy once
in a while. You do too. But that's no barometer. It may
be that at the times that I'm the so-called gladdest, I may
be the farthest from rejoicing in the Lord. I may be rejoicing
in some feeling. I may be rejoicing that things
are going good. My happiness just might not be
in Him. It may be in the fact that I
feel good and all my plans are going well. But that's not a
very good measurement of whether I rejoice in the Lord. I tell
you when you measure whether I'm rejoicing in the Lord when
things are not going very good, when I'm a failure, but I realize
that He cannot fail. I'm telling the truth, Michael.
This is the truth. Charles Spurgeon said one time,
it may be when we think we're nearest to God, we're the farthest
away. And sometimes when we think we're the farthest away, totally
dependent on His grace and mercy for all things, we may be the
nearest to God we've ever been. I rejoice in His exaltation.
The Father hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name above
every name. And I rejoice that Jesus Christ
is King of kings and Lord of lords. I rejoice in the fact
that no one can lay anything to my charge or condemnation
because Christ died, Christ was buried, Christ arose, Christ
exalted, and Christ interceding. I rejoice in that. And I do and I can rejoice. And
I will rejoice. But I'll tell you, life, even
for our young people here, has become so complicated, and there's so much peer pressure,
and there's so much stress, and for many of you, the same thing, that you just don't feel like
jumping any chairs. But what I'm saying, what I'm
trying to say is that what we do here, let's do everywhere.
What we are here must be everywhere. Don't be something else here
that you're not somewhere else. Please don't do that. That's
hypocrisy. That's hypocrisy. And I heard
a preacher say in a Bible conference just two or three years ago,
and you'd be shocked if you had listened to this message. He's a good friend of mine, has
been for many years, and a friend of yours, many of you, but I
think he's wrong. He's looking for an outward demonstration. This is what he's wanting, and
if he wants it, he'll get it. He won't get it from serious-minded
people, but he'll get it from religious followers. But he stood in the pulpit, and
he said, I'm heartbroken. He said, when I came into the
ministry, he said, I went with the landmarkers. And there was
no shout of the king among them. He said, I left them and I went
among the sovereign graces, the Calvinists. And he's talking
about you and me. And he said, I found no shout
of the king among them. I find a shout of the king here.
I don't find anybody standing up and acting a fool. I don't
find you sitting out there waving, clapping every time I say something.
But there's some folks sitting out there with a shout of the
King in their hearts and the rejoicing of the Lord Jesus in
their hearts. Isn't that right? Without Him,
we can do nothing. Praise in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm not looking for demonstrations of the flesh. I can go down to
a rock concert and see that. But when I come to the house
of God, I want us to worship. Don't you want to worship God,
and rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice in His power, and His
glory, and His majesty, and rejoice in His covenant mercies? Rejoice
in the Lord always. Always rejoice in His incarnation. He came to rejoice in His perfect
life. And I tell you, when I think
about who He is and what He did and why He did it and where He
is, I feel like the Apostle Peter falling at His knees and crying,
Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. Who am I? What is my house? What is this congregation? I
keep praying the study. He's opened doors for us. I'm
amazed. I'm astounded. I'm awed in His
presence. The way He's blessed this church,
I can't describe it. And I'm fearful. I tell you,
He said, if you call Him Father, you pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear. You know what He said? The fear
of the Lord. Lord, don't take your blessings away. Don't take
them away. I rejoice in His death. I rejoice
in His exultation. And last of all, I rejoice in
this blessed hope that He's given us. Turn to 1 John 3. 1 John
3. And I wrote to a friend of mine
recently after viewing all of this that's going on today, and
it went on in his pulpit. And I said, I want you to be
totally honest with me. Totally honest. And this was
a show, many of you saw it, didn't you? This show in Westminster. I said, I want you to be honest
with me. Do you really think that the Apostle Paul For that
matter, any of the apostles would have taken part in that religious
charade. Do you think for a moment he
would? This preacher in that man's pulpit was talking about
stomping the devil and stomping the accuser so that the intercessor
could start praying. And he was jumping up and down
like a jack-in-the-box and a monkey, stomping the devil up in that
pulpit. And the people were getting carried
away, and they were clapping and screaming and waving their
arms, watching that man. I told this man, I said, I thought
Christ bruised the head of the accuser. I thought Christ crushed
his power. I didn't know I was supposed
to do it. And I said, do you think that the great preachers
of the past, like Luther, and Spurgeon, and Toplady, and Owen,
do you think these men would sit on the platform and watch
that kind of shenanigans? Not for a moment. And I told
him, if they wouldn't do it, you better not do it. For who
God is, who God was, He is, and who He is, He'll ever be. And
our worship is no different from the worship of Abraham. No different. And the worship of David. No
different. For who God was, He is, and He
ever will be. And the worship of our young
people. Now, I've tried to tell you this. Don't you change this
heart worship. Don't you cater to the world.
Don't you give in. Well, we've got to, if we're
going to worship and get people here, then we've got to cater
to them. We'll worship God by ourselves. We're not going to
dress like them. We're not going to sing like
them. We're not going to talk like them. We're not going to
do away with our Bible and get a living Bible that talks modern
language. We're not going to do it. Who
God is, was, he is, he ever will be. What the gospel was, it is,
it ever will be. What the worship of God was,
it is, and it always will be. And that's heart worship. That's
heart. 1 John 3, listen. Behold, oh
behold, what manner of love. The Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world
knoweth us not because it didn't know him. You're not going to
win the world. You're not going to change the
world. Certainly not going to change it by being like them,
or conducting your worship service so that they'll be comfortable.
Let them sit on the outskirts and observe your relationship
with God and your love for God and the presence of God. And
it may be God will break their hearts and save them and bring
them to a knowledge of Christ. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we're going to be like Him. We're going
to see Him as He is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I rejoice
in the hope he has given me in Christ. And that hope never dies. It
never fades. It's my hope tonight when I'm
here with you. It's my hope tonight when I lie
in bed and wonder if I preached like I ought to preach today,
if I said what I ought to say, If I was faithful to the Word
of God, it would be my hope in the morning when time to get
up and start work again. And I'm going to rejoice in the
Lord just like I am right now. Just like I am right now. And
anything different would be hypocrisy. We don't pray to be seen of men.
We don't worship to be seen of men. We don't give to be seen
of men. God looks on the heart. And we're
the circumcision who worship God in spirit, in His spirit,
in our spirit, and have no confidence in His flesh. And we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Now, I believe those things.
I believe them. I believe that we're worshiping
God. No, no, I never have felt I worship God as He ought to
be worshiped, but I'm worshiping God at least from the heart,
and you are too. And don't be envious of what
this world is saying and doing because God's not in it. Don
is just not in it. It embarrasses me, and I know
it must be a stench in the nostrils of God. Let's pray for one another. Let's
rejoice in the Lord always. All right, Mike, come lead us
in a hymn, if you will.

Rejoicing In the Lord

What does the Bible say about rejoicing in the Lord?

How do we know God’s sovereignty is true?

Why is spiritual maturity important for Christians?

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Rejoicing In the Lord

What does the Bible say about rejoicing in the Lord?

How do we know God’s sovereignty is true?

Why is spiritual maturity important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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