Christian joy is a profound and serene experience that originates from God and is sustained by the Holy Spirit, independent of external circumstances. This joy is not superficial but rests on God's provisions and promises, offering contentment and satisfaction. The sermon highlights that this joy is a fruit of the Spirit, evidenced by believers rejoicing even amidst affliction, persecution, and trials, as seen in the examples of the apostles Paul and Silas. Ultimately, this enduring joy stems from the consciousness of God's presence, the understanding of His Word, victory over sin, and the blessed relationship as members of God's family.
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say that it's been a joy to me years of the week would be the understatement of the week. I don't know, but one fault I can find with Park and the Bronx. The food is too good. I say down here, yeah, I'd be as big as somebody else I know. Now, don't look at Dave Harvey. I don't even know. How do you know I was talking about him? Well, we sang one of my favorite songs tonight, and I feel led of the Lord to just give a word of testimony.
I learned a long time ago when the Lord put something in my heart, don't grieve the Spirit by not doing it. I remember the first night I ever heard that song. Well, actually, it was a Sunday afternoon in the Gospel Chapel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Leading the singing that day was a young man who was there in heaven by the name of Ed McCoy. And a young lady by the name of Marion Hoover, or rather Marion Bogart from Elgin, Illinois, had come up with several young people from the Moody Bible Institute.
to take part in a special series of meetings that I was engaged in. And this young lady, with a beautiful voice dedicated to the Lord, she could have gone to the Met Opera, I'm sure, without any trouble, sang this hymn. I'd never seen it, I'd never heard it. And when I realized the truth of what she was singing, I couldn't hold back the tears. You know, I'm not a, I want you to say, a sympathetic type person in the sense that I cry easily about sorrow so much. But whenever I stop and think of the grace of God in saving a wretch like I was, and of how unworthy I am of His grace, I cannot hold back with years.
Now one of the reasons this song means so much to me is because It was the aspect of joy that I'm speaking about tonight that brought me to the Lord Jesus Christ. A fear of hell and judgment was not what brought me to Christ. Now, after I was saved and after I began to get into the Word, I began to see, as I measured my life and my actions by those of the Lord and the Word, that I was a terrible sinner. I remember after I went to the Columbia Bible College three and a half years after I was saved, I began to doubt whether I was saved or not because I began to see what God's standards really were.
Incidentally, if you ever get worried about whether you're saved or not, that's a good sign. Well, anyway, the thing that brought me to the Lord was a desire to have joy and peace in my heart. That's why I love to bring a message like I'm bringing tonight. But I want to take a few minutes to very briefly give you my testimony, and then we'll give you the message, which the Lord has blessed my heart. I do want to say once again, it's been a joy being here. I shall look forward in the will of the Lord. If he be not come, I'm returning. I do have a few more messages, by the way. In fact, I have four notebooks full of notes, not that I still use them up.
You know, and I'll tell you this, it won't cost anything extra. It's quite interesting. Some of you may not know it. When Billy Graham went to Los Angeles in, he had two weeks of sermons. And just before the second week was over, the Lord began to break things loose out there. Stuart Hamlin and a bunch of these fellows got saved and they put in the newspapers and people started coming and they didn't feel like they could close the campaign. And so he went to Brother Jim Graham, who happened to be in Los Angeles at the time, and he says, Jim, what can I do? I don't have any more sermons. And we're going to continue the meeting. What can I do? And I don't want to preach the same one. He did another one thing to do. To lock yourself in your hotel room eight hours a day with your Bible.
And ask God to give you some messages. And God gave me some messages. And he used those messages as he'd never used any before. And you know the result of what God did in Los Angeles. Well, anyway, as I was going to say... I was born and reared in a nominally Christian home, twenty-one miles south of Athens, Georgia, in a little place called Appalachia. You would miss it unless you slowed down. In Morgan County, my mother and father had devotions in the hall every night.
I was told not to do bad. I was told to do good. I was never allowed to read a newspaper on Sunday. I was never allowed to shine my shoes on Sunday. I was never allowed to play ball on Sunday. That was the Sabbath, they said. And as I began to go into junior high school and high school, I was considered more or less a model young man. There was only one thing wrong. We shocked a few. I wasn't safe. I joined the church when I was seven years of age because they told me if I joined the church I'd go to heaven. Well, everybody wanted to go to heaven. So I joined the church when I was seven years of age. I did it either way. I stood on the front row and when the preacher came down at the protracted meetings in the middle of the summer, the third week in July every summer since Reconstruction days I think, all I had to do was stick my hand out and he shook it and that was it.
Nothing good, really. Well, went into high school and I had a little musical ability and I learned to play a trumpet, so they asked me to become the song leader in the Sunday school. Then they had me to substitute teacher, so they asked me to substitute son school class. Well, I went away, went into high school and behind the mother's back I organized a little jazz band and played for dance. But my mother and father never knew about it. Went away to college, continued. It was during the Depression and I needed the money. But when I went away to the University of Georgia, There was a man there that attracted my attention. Big, tall fellow born in Bedford, England, with a wonderful British accent, and I've always loved beautiful British accent.
And this man attracted me, but his accent didn't attract me as much as a smile on his face. I knew that fellow was different. He was head of the department, a philosophy of all people, of all things at the University of Georgia. and I became attracted to him and he became attracted to me. And through a combination of circumstances, mainly that I flunked freshman man, I went back to summer school. But the Lord had a purpose in all that. Romans eight, twenty-eight was in the Bible back in nineteen thirty-eight also. And I went back to summer school. Now I heard the gospel preached once or twice in my life. I heard it preached with Jesse Henley.
This lady hit me up loud and heard of Jesse Henley in Madison, Georgia, and I heard Peter Marshall preach it my freshman year at the University of Georgia. But I didn't know that that was the gospel. I just knew it was different. And this dear man of God that I've taken an interest in because of a smile on his face took an interest in me, and he and I went fishing. And he caught a man for Jesus. He said, Shockly, you're not happy, are you? I said. No, sir. He said, Shockley, why don't you happy? He said, you come from a good home and you have more than the average student here at the university. You have your own automobile. I had to have a little car to get schooled, twenty-one miles a day and back.
He said, you've got a lot of friends, yes. You're active in the church. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You're not happy. No, sir. He said, Shockley, I know how you can be happy. I said, what is it? He said, oh, it's not it. It's a person. Oh. He says, Shockley, what you need is to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. I said, oh, Dr. Wright, and I already know about him. He says, yes, Shockley, that is your trouble. You know about him? You don't know him. I said, is there a difference? He said, why, as much difference as day and night?
He said, do you know the President of the United States? I said, no, sir, I know about him. He said, but you don't know him, do you? And I said, no, sir. He said, shockingly, what you need to do is to come to know experimentally and personally the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. And he said, when this happens, he'll not only forgive your sins, but he'll give you joy and peace and happiness. And I knew that man knew when he was talking about it because I'd seen it on his face and in his life. I said, Dr. Wright, I've tried everything else. I'll try Him. And if He told me to go to Stone Mountain and climb on my hands and knees for a mile or two up to the top, kiss something, and have peace, I would have done it.
But He told me to receive a gift, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was eighteen years of age, and that was the first time that anybody had ever told me that I could be saved by receiving a gift. five o'clock in the afternoon, June the sixteenth, nineteen thirty-eight, Eastern Standard Time. You see, I was there when it happened. I remember. I came back to my dormitory and I went to my foot locker and got the Bible out of the bottom of the foot locker that my mother had given me when I went to college. I had a room where I stayed and I went back and forth several days a week because the responsibility was at home. And I opened that Bible and I began to read it and it was a new book.
I'd never seen a lot of those things. I'd read them many, many times, but they never had none of them to me. You see, for the first time in my life, I was looking at the Bible and I was reading the Bible through God's glasses. And His Holy Spirit was in dwelling in my heart and life, and He gave me the joy of looking at the Word and understanding it for the first time. Now, there was never... a moment's doubt in my mind from the moment God saved me that I was proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Never one moment's doubt. In fact, before I was converted, I kind of dreaded, if I ever really get converted, I'm going to have to preach.
And who wants to preach? Well, nobody wants to preach until they're saved and until they really know the Lord Jesus. Well, it's a long story. I've got to really condense it, but I went ahead and by God's grace, because I had to, now that I knew the Lord and loved him, I could tell less about a swing band. So I took my trumpet and I threw it away. No idea. I had a dedication ceremony. And I dedicated my trumpet. And I said, now trumpet, you've been used to the devil. I want to dedicate you to the Lord. And I'm going to use you for God from now. Well, I had to have some money.
I've been making money in my little band. I had to have some money. So about five days or six days later, Mr. Hugh Hodson, head of the music department, sent somebody down to the band rehearsal one afternoon, said, we need somebody to learn to play the French horn. We're short of French horn. We've got a scholarship available. I said, that's me. I'll go. I'll learn. So they had a man to spend about two or three hours a day with me, and in two or three weeks I was playing the French horn in the symphony orchestra. And then I got a scholarship to play in the... military in the football band. And that was the way I was able to finish my college education. And I think that some of the most valuable training that I ever received while at the university were in these organizations. Now the senior year at the University of Georgia, we were able to organize the first chapter of the Inter-Vocity Christian Fellowship in the South.
And there were two men in that chapter, one, well two, I'm not going to call their names. But these men had grown up in fellowships of Christians, similar to this one right here, one in Baltimore and one in New Jersey. And I was hungry to know the Lord and to serve the Lord simply in the name of the Lord. But I didn't know that anybody in the world met like that. And these fellows, for some reason that I'll never know until I get to heaven, didn't bother to tell me that there were people that were meeting just like I thought people ought to meet. Simply in the name of the Lord Jesus, preaching the unadulterated word of God, seeking to establish a New Testament church.
Well, I went ahead, and this senior year at the university, we had what we called the Georgia Southern, and we had it all planned. I was going to come back to the university the next year. Work on the master's degree, Dr. Howard Kelly at John Hopkins was going to give me a scholarship so that I wouldn't have to work on the side, and I was going to spend all my time, other than my studies, seeking to win fellowship to the Lord Jesus. But God had other plans. A fellow by the name of Eugene Cowman, he was the governor of the state of Georgia, and for some reason, he wanted to get rid of all the foreign-born professors at the university. I suppose he thought they were all Nazi or something. So away went, my dear Dr. Wright. Well, I didn't have any desires coming back working on a master's degree in philosophy except under this man who led me to Christ.
So I began to look around and seek the Lord's will, and he led me to the graduate school of the Columbia Bible College in Columbia, South Carolina. That year there was very profitable. I went over there and took as much Bible as I could because I had a feeling that God was going to lead me into intervascular fellowship work among college students. While I was at the Bible College, I met some people in South Carolina by the name of Southern Methodist, and they pulled out of the Methodist Church as a result of union in thirty-nine, and they were short of preachers, and they needed somebody to come down and preach at a little church with nine members, a little place called Leesville, South Carolina.
So we went down there, and on every other weekend I'd go down and preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Got some wonderful experience. The Lord gave us some souls. But I was still seeking the Lord's will in my life. I felt the Lord leading me to work with intervosity. And so when Mr. Stacey Woods came through Bible College during the year, I had an interview with him. And he said, Mr. Few, unless the Lord leads otherwise, we hope that you will be able to join the staff of intervosity in the fall of nineteen hundred and forty-two. continued to hold on to my pastures because of the draft, or I would have been drafted since I had not been ordained. And so in the fall of nineteen forty-two, I went to the staff conference of the Inter-Vox Christian Fellowship in Guelph, Ontario.
And there we were. I was a Methodist, somebody else was a Presbyterian, somebody else was a Baptist, somebody else was Mission Covenant, somebody else was Evangelical in Reform, somebody else was something they called, brethren, and so forth, and so on. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, and on Sunday morning, We met in a large living room in a circle, and we had a little black book in our hands, and they had the first real, genuine worship meeting I've ever been in in my life. I remember the first song, and when they started singing, I couldn't sing. I just choked up the right ear. Oh, Christ, what burdens thou of my head? My Lord was laid on thee. I remember Mr. Paul Beckwith got up and talked to us from the eighty-fourth Psalm.
as he exalted the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said, oh, this is wonderful, but I'm sure we just met like this because, well, so many different denominations, one particular service would never have suited us. And lo and behold, I found out that there were other people scattered around the world that met just like that every Lord's day. Well, I came back to South Carolina. And four or five months later, Paul Beckwith came through my area, speaking in some interlocutic chapters, and we were on our way to Atlanta from Columbia, and he said, let's go by Augusta and meet Virgil Hollingsworth. So we went by Augusta and met this Mr. Hollingsworth that I heard a lot about, and he took us out that day to a place where they were knocking the petitions out of a big house to make ready for what later became Bethany Chapel.
Mr. Hollingsworth and I seemed to strike up a real friendship from the very beginning. And he said, Shockley, the first Sunday you're free. Come back to Augusta and remember the Lord with us and preach the gospel at night. I said, did you say I remember the Lord? You do that here? Yeah. I said, man, I'll be here. Oh, I'll be here. And the first Sunday that rolled around, I was right there. Once again, I remember the first song they sang. And I remember what Brother Hollingsworth got up and said. He got up and talked about the woman who adorned the feet of Jesus with a precious ornament. I'll tell you, brother, that was heaven on earth. I've never worshipped like that in my life. And I said, as far as I'm concerned, this is the way I'd like to worship the rest of my life.
Well, I finished my year with Anthropocity, and I stayed in the telemetric church until nineteen hundred and forty-four. And in nineteen forty-four, I did everything in my power to go into the arm of the chaplain. I passed the physical, I passed the mental. I resigned my pastoral, and I was endorsed, and everything was ready to go. All I needed was the orders to go to chaplain school. Well, I went to Atlanta for a few weeks and waited in Atlanta, did some temporary work, and finally the chief of chaplains who had told me for sure that I'd be called. He said, Mr. Dewey, it looks like the Protestant quota is full. He said, now if you want to go back in the pastoral, you may go. But... And then if you go into the pastor, then your orders to go to chaplain school come through, we'll see that you don't have to go.
Well, I went to Memphis, Tennessee. Whether it was a church there without a pastor. And two weeks after I got there, I got a telegram or a question that I report to Fort Devin's Massachusetts chaplain school. I put the telegram in an envelope and sent it back to the chief of chaplain. I never heard from it. After that. And a few months after we got to Memphis, Tennessee, I met a fine young man by the name of John J. McGeehy. who has been a missionary to China. I can't go into all the details, but he said, I wish you fellows at a businessman's luncheon like CBNC, we should pray that I find a place to live. It was very difficult to find an apartment in Memphis if you had children at that time. And the Lord said while he was making the request, you can help answer the prayer, because right above the house you're living in is an attic apartment that's not being used.
To make a long story short, in a matter of a week or two, John McGeehy and Betty and their several children were living above us. in that apartment. Well, what Virgil Hollingsworth and the Holy Spirit hadn't already done, John J. McGee he did the rest. He and I had some wonderful times of fellowship in the Word. He was very wise. He said, Shockley, if you leave this denomination and if you come into fellowship among these people that meet in the name of the Lord Jesus, he said, you'll see a lot that's not of the Lord. He said, you'll see some flesh. He says, but you won't find a group of people anywhere that are trying harder to simply follow the New Testament pattern laid down in Scripture.
He said, it will be wonderful to look to the Lord and to the Lord alone for all your needs and all your support. I said, John, this is what I've been looking for. This is what I've been looking for. And so after a lot of prayer and discussion with Dottie, my sweet wife, we left the pastorate in Memphis, Tennessee and came back to Batesburg, South Carolina for a little while, and we received into fellowship in Bethany Chapel in Augusta, the first assembly of Christians as a local church where I ever remembered the Lord. We sought to go out to China in nineteen hundred and forty-eight, but Lord closed the door, as all of you know, by the coming in of the Communists.
So the Lord led us later to go into Columbia, and we've been in Columbia ever since. But beloved brethren and sisters, if I had to do over again, I'd do it a thousand times. It is a wonderful thing to have freedom and liberty in preaching the word of God, in looking to the Lord and to the Lord alone for your support, and to seek his blessing and his approval alone in all that you do. I wouldn't swap places with anyone in the world.
We've had some wonderful experiences in Columbia. For fourteen years it was our privilege to direct you for Christ. No one ever guaranteed us a sense, but the Lord always met our needs. We've seen as many as six thousand people out at one time to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. We saw many young people saved and they've scattered all over the world now preaching the gospel. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Back in nineteen sixty-two, the Lord led us to open a little Christian bookstore as a testimony. And there's not a day that goes by, but what we are privy to the Lord, to encourage some discouraged, despondent Christian, or to present the gospel to someone that knows him not.
So I just want to share that word of testimony with you tonight. I love the Lord Jesus, and I love his people. and I love to preach the gospel and to seek to minister the word to the saints. I think that perhaps at the present time my burden to seek to exhort and to challenge the saints and to get them to up and do something for the Lord is even greater than my burden to preach the gospel because I know that America, the people in America, are without excuse. as far as the gospel is concerned. If there's anybody that wants to be saved in America, he's without excuse, because all he has to do is turn his radio off and keep turning it, especially on Sunday nights.
I preach a lot of way. I'm away half the time on weekends, and I drive back many times on Sunday nights, Lawrence and Augustine, Charlotte, Greenville, Charleston, Savannah, and sometimes on Sunday nights, I just try to see how many different gospel broadcasts I can hear in one hour. And one Sunday night, I turn to fifty-six stations in a two-hour period where I could hear a man that was clearly preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, beloved, this country is without excuse. If there's anybody that wants to be saved, all they've got to do is get them a little radio and turn it on. They don't even have to go to a church. They can get saved right on the radio by hearing the gospel proclaim.
Well, I shouldn't intend to take that long, but I was glad to share it with you, and I trust it might be a little help. I'd like to talk now for the remainder of the time. Pardon me, I may go just a minute or two over time. All right, with you. About Christian joy. Christian joy. As I said in my testimony, the thing which brought me to the Lord Jesus Christ was I desired to have joy in my heart. Now, I never found joy apart from a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ. The Lord Jesus, just before he went to the cross, says this, These things have I spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
And in John chapter sixteen, verses twenty to twenty four, listen to this. Verily, verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail is sorrow, because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembrance, no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow. But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy, no man, take it from you.
And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I send to you whatsoever you shall ask. The Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye had nothing in my name, ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. The Lord Jesus also said in John seventeen thirteen, But now I am come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. Now it's very interesting to notice in the Bible that there are many paradoxical sayings in that we have peace and joy and vain and blessing, and sorrow and satisfaction compared many, many times.
in the Christian life. There are a number of cases in the Bible where circumstances were used to cause real lasting joy. And I don't think there's nothing unscriptural about this because the Lord uses circumstances many times to bring joy into our hearts. Now the wonderful thing about it is this, that regardless of circumstances, a real genuine child of God can have joy in his heart. And the world knows absolutely nothing about this joy. I used to love that little chorus. We used it a lot in Youth for Christ. If you want joy, real joy, let Jesus come into your heart. Your sins, he'll wash away. Your night, he'll turn to day. If you want joy, real joy, let Jesus come into your heart.
Now, one of the examples of joy connected with circumstances is recorded. We're not going to turn to it. It's in First Chronicles chapter twelve. You remember David had been king over a part of Israel. but then in the twelfth chapter they made him king over all of Israel and the word of God says there was great joy in Israel in verse forty of the twelfth chapter of verse chronicles then a little later we find that they went down David went down to the house of Obed-Edom how do you pronounce that brother with him that's right you mean I was right great day surprised to myself they went down to get the ark of the covenant And we read there was great joy because it had gone against the law, the heart of the covenant.
Now the Bible also speaks of future joy. In Psalm thirty and five, weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. In first Peter four thirteen we read, As ye are the takers of Christ, suffering to rejoice, that if the revelation of his glory also you may rejoice, with exceeding joy. Now, we've already mentioned in this short time two different types of joy. One is connected with circumstances, and another is future joy, promise, and pledge of God. But there's still another kind of joy, and that's the kind of joy I want to talk about. It's the kind of joy that comes to the Christian, to the true believer, regardless of circumstances.
So let's see what we have in several different places now in the Word. Paul says in Second Corinthians seven, four, I overflow with joy in all my affliction. When? In all my affliction. Overflow with joy. And then Peter, first Peter one, seven, and eight. Your faith, this ASV translation, is proved by fire. You rejoice. greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And then Brother James comes in with his little contribution. And in the second verse of the first chapter of his wonderful little book, he says, Janet all joy when you fall into divers or menical trials.
All right, now look in your Bibles at First Thessalonians chapter one. First Thessalonians chapter one. and verse six and seven. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost, so that ye were examples, or examples, it means, to all that believe in Macedonia and our case. Brother, sister, If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you have thought in the past to live for him and to be true to him, I guarantee you that you have known something of disappointment, of discouragement, of sadness, of detours, obstacles, problems, difficulties in your life.
But if you truly knew the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been fortified and prepared and equipped to meet these experiences as the man that knows not to save you and knew nothing about at all. And it's when these times of testing and trial and sadness and bereavement and disappointment come in the life of the true believer, that is when he has an opportunity to be a real testimony to the people around the body. Oh, I know of people that have been brought to us by the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ because of how they've seen Christians act in times of testing. Oh, I remember when I was pastor of a little Methodist church in Memphis, Tennessee, there was a lady there that was a real woman of faith.
I was not worthy to unlatch her shoelaces hardly when it came to faith and prayer. And she had a son that was reported missing in action over Germany. out of a B-Twenty-four. He was a pilot. And after five months, she received a telegram from Walter Walnut Center. He was a prisoner of the Germans. And he would remain the prisoner six or seven or eight more months before the war was over. You know what that lady said? Her testimony was, after it was all over, she said, you know, most of you, during all of this time. During those many months when we didn't know whether Lancelot was dead or alive, and then during those months when we knew that he was the prisoner of war of the German people, she said, Mr.
Few, I never missed one night's sleep. I said, Ms. Manor, how in the world could you do that? She said, Mr. Few, I knew that Lancelot was the Lord's, and I was the Lord's, and he was in the Lord's hands. And the Lord was just as able to keep Lansloth in Europe, in the war, as he was in Memphis, Tennessee. And he was just as able to keep Lansloth when he was the prisoner of war of the Germans as he was right here in Memphis, Tennessee. Beloved, that is the peace that Jesus Christ, by his Holy Spirit alone, can give to a Christian.
I wonder how many of us know anything about that kind of peace. That's the kind of peace that the Lord Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit to give to you and to me. The joy of which I speak, let me read this, because I spent a little time on it, and I might not give it right the way I have it. The joy of which I speak is not man-made. It is not superficial. It is profound. It is intense. It is serene. It's not boisterous. It stands in contrast to mere gaiety, merriment, mirth, and pleasure. It is never aroused by trivial things. It always rests on the provision and the promises of God.
It involves contentment and satisfaction that comes from God and from God alone. All right? Let's think for a few moments now about the source of this joy. And then about the means of communication, this joy. Romans, verse fourteen, seventeen says, The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The source of Christian joy is God. The Holy Spirit is the one who creates and sustains joy in the heart of the believer. All right. Now, several times this week we have quoted and read a very, very familiar verse. You all know it in the heart. We don't even need to turn to it. Galatians, five, one and two.
The fruit of the Spirit is what? Joy. All right. Now I know that's just one of nine fruits, multiple fruits. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. All right. Read Acts. What do you find? Joy. Persecution. Death. Hardship. Trial. Jails. Rack. Billy Graham said when Paul went to a community, he didn't ask him how the hotel was. He asked how the jails were because he knew sooner or later he'd end up in the jail. Do you remember Acts chapter thirteen?
Paul and Barnabas had been preaching and things were going pretty well for the first few days. Then the Jews heard that the Gentiles were going to be led in on this gospel also. They got jealous. And they stirred up trouble. And they beat Paul and Silas and threw them out of the city. So they said, well, all right, everything's done, Paul. We'll have to give up our eggs. No, they didn't. The Bible says they shook the dust off of their feet, and they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. Joy. Paul and Silas went later in Acts I wonder how many people have been into the modern jails.
They've been into the modern jails. I just want to tell you something. The kind of jails that Paul and Solomon were in didn't resemble the kind they have today. Our men in Columbia go out to a county convict camp every Sunday afternoon and preach the gospel. Look, I've got TV in there. Yeah. I've even seen air-conditioned jails now, and all that. Well, the kind that Paul and Silas were in is recorded in Acts XVI. It wasn't that kind. One of the first things I want to ask Paul when I get to heaven, I've always been curious is which one of the songs they were singing in that jailer. Midnight! Singing, praises to God.
And you know, one of the reasons that old jailer was converted and convicted. You know why? It's because he couldn't fathom people that be in jail for preaching the gospel and sing about it. couldn't understand it and beloved when Christians see you going through trials and afflictions and hardships and disappointment and discouragement and you have the kind of joy that Jesus Christ alone can give but his Holy Spirit they're going to take knowledge that you've been with Jesus I don't think it just happened in this verse back here that we just read that it says they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
I don't think that just happened. I think the Scripture put the Holy Spirit put that in there on purpose. Because the Holy Spirit is the instrument that God uses to give us the fullness of joy. And I don't believe there are any exceptions to this. All right? Now, what are the means of communication of Christian joy? All right? There are at least two sources. First of all, there are special reasons why a child of God... will have joy in his heart. And then there are permanent reasons why we can always have joy. But there are special occasions when Christians, when believers, are called to have special joy.
And we will mention these, all right? In regards to special joy, in Luke fifteen seven we have an example where a sinner is converted. They repent, And they are converted, and there's joy. In Acts fifteen three, once again Paul and Barnabas, we said, therefore, being brought on their way by the church, passed through both Venetia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. Joy, what? Because souls were being saved.
and beloved brothers and sisters. We should always rejoice when we hear that somebody has heard the gospel and been saved. Regardless of who the instrument was, regardless of how he did it, if somebody has heard the word and been convicted and been converted to Christ, we should rejoice. Whether we had anything to do with it or not, Oh, I love that sweet potion there. And Philippians, I read it sometimes, and I believe tears slow down my cheeks as I read it. Well, that sweet, wonderful man by the name of Paul talks about these men that are preaching the gospel even of Indian strife.
And he says, Oh, I rejoice because the gospel is being preached. Philippians chapter one, verses seventeen and eighteen. Beloved Christian, are you big enough Are you big enough to rejoice when people that don't dot their I and cross their T and say their phrases the way you do are seeing souls say, are you? Are you that big? Again, Christians should rejoice when they see other Christians being in business with God. When you hear of somebody that's really going on with the Lord, and they're making progress in their spiritual life. We should rejoice when we see this happen.
We should rejoice when we see God using somebody else. In the little book of Philemon, verse seven, Paul says, I have much joy and comfort in thy love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through thee, brother, in next week. He says, I was greatly joyed and I was blessed and thrilled when I heard about Christians who've been refreshed and blessed by you. You know, beloved Christians, one of the greatest sins in Christianism today is jealousy and covetousness.
We're a little jealous if somebody else has a word that's a little similar to ours because we're afraid some of the people that might come to our work will go over there. I've seen this in a number of Christian organizations, and it has grieved me that they don't care to mention any other words. Maybe another minister rather similar is being greatly used to the Lord, and they won't even bother to pray for him. One of the most damning things in the Church of Jesus Christ today is jealous. That's one of the things I praise the Lord about for Billy Graham.
I've been in his presence. I've been on my knees with him when I've heard him call by name of the men of God that have preached in the gospel and asked God to bless him. Yea, I've been on my knees with him when I've heard him call by name the men of God that have fought him and criticized him and accused him and talked against him and about him. I've heard him ask God to bless him. Bless them. And that's one of the reasons why God is using him. He's a big enough man to pray for people who are actually his enemies. Also, we should rejoice when prayer is answered. John, sixteen, twenty-four said, Asking you shall receive that your joy may be full.
And the crowd. Oh, beloved Christian, let me ask you something. How long's it been since you asked the Lord for something? And he gave it to you. And your heart was blessed. You know what? I've been guilty of several times. I don't suppose this ever happens to you. You know, I can look back in my life and I remember a few times when I asked the Lord for something. Earnishly, sincerely. And he gave it to me. And you know what? I believe I really, frankly, forgot to thank him for it. But I'll tell you. If you have really prayed earnestly for something, and God, in His infinite mercy and goodness and greatness and power, has been honored, has honored you, blessed you by giving you that answer, that is a real thrill.
When what you ask for could come only by a miracle, and God has performed the miracle, this is a real blessing. Now, we come in closing, to these instances a reason why a Christian may rejoice and have joy at all times under any circumstance. And we close with these. All right, first of all, it's the thought and the consciousness of God's presence with us.
I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to be a psychologist right now. I'm going to tell you something about yourself. Do you remember the times when you've been discouraged? Do you remember the times? And you kind of got down in the mouth, disappointed, blew, responded kind of. I'm going to tell you what happened. It won't cost you one cent. You don't have to go to anybody's couch anywhere. I'm going to tell you what happened. you took your eyes off of the Lord Jesus and you put them on yourself that's what always happens you take your eyes off the man in the glory and you cease to think about the greatness and the goodness of God and of his infinite power and you look at little old puny me and you start doing Don't ever talk about Jonah.
Psalm forty three says, God, my exceeding strength, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk three eighteen. Oh, I love that verse. I remember once I heard a man preach for one solid week on that verse. And every person in this room, you can think back in your life, you've known of Christians that really knew the Lord. And they learned to trust the Lord in all kinds of circumstances and conditions. And the joy of the Lord was their strength. And they'd gone through sadness and temptation and difficulty and trial and suffering and physical anguish.
And yet they'd never, never ceased. Praise the Lord. You've been called upon on occasion to go in and visit with them perhaps and to try to cheer them up and you're going to cheer them up and to cheer you up. The joy of the Lord is that strength. All right. The second reason why we can be joyful. And this is a blessed reason. is the realization that God has spoken to us in such a way that we can understand it through His Word.
Through His infinite mercy and grace, He has blessed us when there are millions that are far more deserving than we. And yet we are privileged to have His Word, His message in simple form. I wonder how many of you today have thanked God for his word. Because there are millions that have never heard the name of Jesus. There are millions who have never seen a Scopeville Bible. There are millions who don't even have an alphabet that you could translate it into. And yet God has privileged you, beloved, and given you this wonderful book, this love letter, this instruction book that tells you how to walk and how to talk and how to live.
body are on the scene what a blessing well as an example of what I'm talking about don't turn to it because we don't have time but it's in Nehemiah the eighth chapter tenth and twelve verses they call Ezra and they ask Ezra to bring down the law of Moses and then they got people after Ezra read the law they got people to interpret the law and to help them understand the law and it says they rejoice. They said the joy of the Lord is our strength. Why? Because they could understand the law. Beloved, think of all the helps that we have to assist us in understanding this wonderful law.
The Word of God. Psalm number hundred nineteen one sixty two. I rejoice at thy word as one that signeth great spoil. Great wealth mine. A great wealth. as I was in the Word of God. The same thought of in Jeremiah five sixteen. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. Thy words were unto me a joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name. Jehovah God of hosts, the Word of God, the reading of it, the understanding of it, it is the means of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit uses to distill in our hearts his heavenly joy. Then there's a third.
source that the Holy Spirit uses to bring joy into our hearts. It is the consciousness that we have that God has given us victory over our sins, over temptation, over evil in this sinful world. Now I wonder how many of you know what it means to be tempted to be solely tempted by the devil and to trust in the living God and to go through that time of testing and trial and temptation victorious.
And after you've come through the fire, you rejoice because you know that our God is faithful. He's allowed you to be tempted, but he has given you the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I have in my notes here an example of this. We won't turn to it. But I think John the Baptist is a good example. You know what? John the Baptist could have kind of taken over, you know, and he could have had the whole show there for a while. But he didn't do that. He said, well, there's one coming after me. I'm not worthy. I'm loose shoes.
And he came on down a little farther, and it's recorded in the one of a third chapter of John. He said, he must increase, but I must decrease. Oh, isn't that beautiful? That's the case of a man that could have done a lot for himself, but all he did, he said, I'm just a light. I'm just a wayfarer. I'm just pointing. I'm pointing to someone. And the one I'm pointing to is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. put an example. And then the last. And this brings joy into the heart of the Christian. When you realize the happy relationship there is for all of those who are born of the Spirit and who are members of the family of God.
Well, for I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Once again, let me use this illustration from my dear friend and brother, William Culbertson of Moody Bible Institute. Once again, he said this happened while he was up in the little Pennsylvania Dutch town up there in Pennsylvania. He was speaking of this little group of Christians one night, and they'd been studying the book of Ephesians, and they'd been in this section for a number of weeks, and he was preparing one Wednesday afternoon to give them a little message that night. And he came across that verse, and he didn't see anything unusual about it.
But he said, he read it again, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. And he said, my, great, great, What a tremendous truth. He said, I never saw it before. I had it in college and I had it in seminary, but I never saw it. The whole family. Just a small portion of families down here, he said. Just a small portion. The rest of the family is in heaven. But I'm part of that family. You know, beloved, you're in the greatest fraternity in the world.
You know that. And it didn't cost you one cent. You ordered them initiated. I say that reverently. And you're full-fledged. And the devil and all of his cohorts in hell can't take you out of this fraternity. of whom the whole family, praise God, the great men and the big men and the little men who call on the name of Jesus, they are members of the same family that you are members of. Henry Martin, the great missionary, said this, My principal enjoyment is the enjoyment of God.
Beloved, I trust that our principal enjoyment will be the enjoyment of God. I want us to turn to number two, five, three in that little bitty hymn book. Number two, fifty-three, in that little worship hymn book it's called Hymns of Worship and Remembrance. I'm going to read several verses and then I want us to stand and think. thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of life, thou light of men, from the best blessed bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to thee again.
O Lord, be thou of strength and stay, make all our moments calm and bright, chase all dark thoughts of sin away, shed over us here. the Holy Light. Shall we stand as we sing this?