Christian joy is a profound and enduring state that transcends circumstances, rooted in God's presence and promises. The sermon explores various sources of joy, including the repentance of sinners, the spiritual growth of believers, answered prayer, and the fellowship within God's family. It contrasts this divine joy with superficial happiness, emphasizing that true joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, sustained even amidst suffering and trials, as exemplified by biblical figures like Jesus, David, and Paul. The ultimate application is to cultivate this God-given joy as a source of strength and a powerful testimony to the world.
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part of the farm. I was here once for a weekend with my with me this trip and two young sons. And then I was here a little later for a weekend conference sometime after that. It's always a joy to be here and meet friends that we've met all over the country. Don't feel badly if I don't remember your name right away. But for some reason I don't remember names as well as I did twenty-five years ago. I don't know why, but I just don't. Oh, he says you do know.
All right. Oh, is that what it is? Because if you all had a name, it's unusual and as short as my name, it wouldn't be difficult for me to remember. But it's a real joy to be back, and we're all ready to refresh just being here just, oh, probably within your twelve hours now, approximately. We left Columbia at three o'clock yesterday and drove through and arrived a little after ten thirty last night. We'll mention the Believers Bible conference a little later.
I'm just guessing just a wee bit behind schedule this morning, so we'll mention that a little later. Trust that all of you will be here for all of the services. The Lord has laid a number of messages upon my heart, and he's blessed my heart as I studied and prepared, and I trust that we may, by his grace and spirit, be able to relay and share with you what the Lord has shared with us. A lot of people, you know, tell jokes and people enjoy them. And I've heard so many people say on many occasions, I wish I could remember jokes. I can't remember jokes. And it's very simple why they don't remember jokes.
When they hear a joke, they don't share it. You see, the best way to keep something is to share it with someone else. And so if the Lord blesses your heart with something from himself and from his word, if you share it with someone else, it'll be a blessing to them. And as I was studying and praying this morning, some of the things that I have upon my heart, bless my own soul and my heart as I look into the Word. And so I'd like to share them with you this morning. I was thinking two days ago, as our brother Bob called me to tell me about the homegoing of our brother Clark.
of the difference in the parting of a Christian believer from this life and the life of those who know him not. And I was thinking of how at times like this, like yesterday morning, when this brother was laid to rest, of the joy that's in a heart as we are conscious of the fact that this man was not put into that grave. Just his body was put there, just the house where he used to live.
I well remember some number of years ago in Jamaica, New York, having the joy of standing in a large funeral home packed mostly with unbelieving relatives of a man that I'd had the joy of leading to the Lord some number of years before. and telling them, Jim McGuire is not in this case. And so I thought this morning it would be appropriate. If we looked into the Bible and made a little study, and those of you who know me know that I love to study topics, I'm not an expository preacher. I don't recognize myself. I don't think of myself as a Bible teacher.
I like to study a topic in the Bible. That's the method which the Lord has blessed my heart with, and that's the method I seek to share with others. So today I'd like for us to make a little study in the Bible of what the Bible has to say about J-O-Y, joy. And I have, at the heading of my notes, Christian joy, because Christians have joy such as no one else can have. Now, it is a fact... that we who are living today, and we are all here, who are living and we wouldn't be here, those of us who are living today are living in perilous times.
Now I'm aware of the fact that those who lived a thousand years ago and four hundred years ago and seven hundred years ago said the same thing. I know that. But look, we are living in difficult times. Most of you, men especially, have been in business. And if you were still in business, you'd know that it's more difficult to be in business today than it was ten years ago, or twenty years ago. All kinds of difficulties in business today, especially if it's a small business. And I imagine the only difference between a small business and a big business is that the larger the business, the more the headache. But anyway, there are a lot of examples in the Word of God of people who had joy when they went through times of suffering and sadness and sorrow and seeming tragedy and disaster.
The Lord Jesus, our model, and our example, said this. Just a few hours before he went to the cross, listen to this. I wish I had the ASV, but I, in my haste, forgot to bring it. But from John seventeen, and I'll read, or rather John sixteen, I begin with the twenty-first. Listen to what he said. Verily, verily, I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but the sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow because her hour has come, but as soon as she is delivered of the child, She remembers no more of 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 taketh from you. And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give you. And here's one of the greatest verses in the Bible about prayer. Hitherto, have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, and your joy may be full. I'd like to just say this about prayer in passion. I hadn't planned to say this, but it comes to my mind.
I hate, I don't know how I else to express it. Maybe I should say, I regret to hear people pray. And they neglect to close that prayer in Jesus' name. You know, I've noticed that some of the little prayers in the Scripture Union notes, they don't do that. And that's bothered me of their life. I must admit, had a young lady work for us in the store up in Columbia in the Christian bookstore ministry. And she used to pray, and she refused to pray in Jesus' name. She said, well, it's understood. It's inferred. He knows that I'm praying in His name. Well, Mostly does. He says here, when you ask in my name.
So I think it's always a good thing, because after all, beloved, the only basis that we have for ever getting through to God is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor, and we go to God through him. In his high priesthood prayer in the next chapter in John, he says, But now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world... that they may have my joy made full in themselves. So now, if the Lord Jesus could talk about joy and rejoicing and happiness and gladness a few hours before he was to give his life a ransom for the sins of the world upon a cruel Roman cross, for certain of those of us, who have all of the blessing and all of the abundance that we have in this land, especially have all the reason in the world to have Christian joy.
Now there are some examples in the Bible where people experience joy because of God's providential dealings with them. One example is that we only compare to this because we don't look at so many places we can't turn to all of them, so since I have them here, just let me refer to them. One of them is in first Chronicles twelve. I'm sure that most of you remember it well, where David, King David, was made king not just of a small segment of Israel, but of all of Israel. And we read, that was joy in Israel. This is in verse twenty of this twelve chapter.
And then a little later, we have another example, when David went to the house of Obadiah. to bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. And we read where they brought the ark back with joy. Now, in these instances, joy was the result of something that was happening or that had happened. The joy was dependent upon something happening. The Bible also speaks of future joy. In Psalm thirty-five we read, Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.
The fact that we can look in the future by faith and know that God is going to deliver us from this temporary time of agony, suffering, sadness, sorrow, difficulty has sustained many, many people. As long as a person has something to hope for in the future, they can go through extreme problems and crises in their life. I've been told that many people in times of, for example, I've heard of people, well, think of the man in Utah recently. He was in a mine and he caged in on it. And he was enclosed in a small little place in the mine for some four or five or six days.
Part of his legs were crushed. He said he had a family. And the fact that he was looking forward to being reunited with his family is a thing that sustains it. The same thing has happened many times on the battlefield. When men had something to go home to, the fact that they looked forward to a future time of deliverance and joy enabled them to survive. In First Peter, full thirteen, we read, as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy.
All right. Now in eight minutes, what have we seen? We've seen, first of all, that joy sometimes can come as a result of common ordinary circumstances. Secondly, we've seen that sometimes joy comes because we know what God is going to do for us by faith in the future. And then there are those examples in the Bible where we read of joy in the midst of tribulation, present joy even in the midst of adverse and difficult circumstances. Now, frankly, as I looked in my concordance and as I looked in my constant Bible, without which I wouldn't want to go on a trip, There are so many verses in this category that you can't begin to mention them, but here's one or two of them.
Most of them are very familiar to, at least the ones I'm going to use. Second Corinthians seven, four, the Apostle Paul says, I overflow with joy in all my afflictions. By the way, if some of the wording sounds a little different, some of these quotations I took down from the American Standard Version, which I like very much. In First Peter, one, seven, and eight, we read in the ASV, Your faith is proved by fire. You rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of what? Glory. And in James one, too, this very familiar verse, he says, Count it all joy when you fall in the manifold trials.
Now, beloved, just let me stop and ask you one thing. How many times have you ever done that? We usually do the opposite. No. The world does. The world does the opposite. When you fall in the manifold trials, what do you do? Complain. Find fault. Criticize. Blame the other man. The Holy Spirit said, through this wonderful man of James, one of the most practical little books in all the Bible, the book of James, says, count it all joy when you fall in the manifold trials.
Why? Because God is going to use the trials for purpose in your life. And then there's another one here in First Thessalonians, the first chapter. Verse six, And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction and with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were examples to all that believed in Macedonia and our creation.
Now, it's impossible for a person to live a normal life without coming into that life, suffering, sadness, difficulty, trial, problems, shattered dreams, struggles of soul, and what have you. And the way that you and I react to these unpleasant, unfortunate, we call them, circumstances, is many times the means of whether or not our testimony is being used of the Lord to be a blessing to the unconverted people who have their eyes focused on us.
And I hate to say it, but this is true. There are many times when because of the way we have reacted to seeming difficulty, problems, and disaster and trouble of one time or another, when the way we have reacted has been the means of shattering any hope that we ever had of being a testimony to unconverted people around the virus. Because we have reacted the same way unconverted people who know not the Lord Jesus have reacted. By the same token, I know Christians whose testimony has been endeared and deepened and made to be fruitful in communities when they have set up under difficulty, tragedy, problems, crises like a Christian should.
people have said, if those people can't stand up like this under this problem and these difficulties, then I'll tell you whatever it is they have are wanted. It is during these times of crisis that our witness can really have power with the unconverted people around the body. So I have a quotation here. that I'd like to read because I could not give it in my own words as well as I have it. I've jotted it down. This is from the pen of my dear brother in Christ, William Culbertson of the Moody Babylon.
He's a man whose shoelaces I'm not worthy of the unloose, but who I count as my friend. And every time I've ever heard him speak in my life, he spoke a message right to my heart. This is what he has had to say about joy. It's so good I've copied it, and several people have heard it, and they've asked me to let them copy it, so I'm very glad to do it. Not mine. Not a risk. This is a quotation. This joy of which we speak is not man-made. It is not superficial. Now, that's the kind of joy they have in Hollywood. That's the kind of joy they have on the screen. It's man-made.
It's superficial. All right. It is profound. It is intense. It is serene. It is not boisterous. It stands in contrast to mere deity, merrily, mercy, 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. Now, with that said, let's look at the source of joy for the Christian for a few moments.
The source, the means, and the communication of this joy. In Romans fourteen seven we read, The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So the source of Christian joy is God. And the Holy Spirit is the one who creates and sustains joy in the heart of the believer. Now, if I were to ask you, what is one of the most familiar verses in the Bible about the fruit of the Spirit, I know that ninety-nine percent of you would all tell me Well, certainly the most familiar verse about the fruit of the Spirit is Galatians five and twenty-two, and that probably is true.
Now, the second part of this verse, of these nine parts of the fruit, is the one we're talking about this morning. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, and the second word is what? Joy. All right. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. But we're talking right now about joy. Now one of the most interesting studies in the Bible, and by the way, some of you people have a little time that you can use from time to time.
I'd like to make us a guess of something you can do sometimes with some of the time that you have. Make us say it. of the entrances in the New Testament church as recorded in the Gospel, or rather in Acts and some of Paul's epistles. Make a study of the cases where the early disciples or apostles, if you refer to Paul's apostles, which is what they really were, of how many times they were persecuted. But they were persecuted jointly. One of the most familiar is in Acts thirteen.
Paul had been preaching an angel. And it firstly received the message rather well. And then some trouble was caused. And Paul and Barnabas were ran out of the city. And it says Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off of their feet. And in verse fifty two we read, they were filled with joy. And with what? A holy spirit. Now, beloved, I want to tell you something. That phrase didn't just happen. You get in there. Because when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're filled with joy.
And when you are filled with joy, you're filled with the Holy Spirit. You cannot separate those two. And there are other cases where this is true. right here in this wonderful book, Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Now, what are the sources? First of all, there are sources for joy, special reasons, for example. There are special things that can happen in the lives of people or lives of people that will bring joy. The second place is the moral binding reasons. when God's child can have joy regardless of what the circumstances may be.
And we're going to mention several of the special ones, and then we'll come to the permanent ones, the ones that all of us can have at any time of the year, day, or night, as we close. What are some of the special reasons for joy? I think if I were to ask you to name some of them, probably all of you would probably get this one. Joy comes to the believer over the repentance of a sinner. Luke, verse fifteen and seven, we have the wonderful, beautiful picture of the prodigal returning to the Father.
And when he repents and when he is restored to full fellowship, there is wonderful joy. Now, I want you to tell me something. Can you think of any thing in the world that can bring more joy than seeing somebody convicted of their sin, repenting of their sin, and being brought to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Beloved, if I ever get to the place where seeing somebody converted and brought to Christ doesn't bring joy in my heart, I hope the Lord takes me to heaven right away, because I won't be where two saints end, Can't you remember some times?
All of you can, I'm sure. I hope you can. I hope this is one of the memories that God will never erase from your memory, but you'll always have the memory of the time when that brother or that sister or that son or that daughter or that relative or that neighbor or that good friend for whom you prayed and prayed and prayed and the Christians that prayed and witnessed. And then in the providence and the goodness of God, they repent. And there were tears, yes, of rejoicing, because somebody had been brought to the stage. Now, I'll be frank with you. I don't know of any joy that's comparable to that joy right now.
I think tears of rejoicing are the prettiest tears in the world. I've seen people so happy sometimes when this happened, and I'm talking about... Have you ever seen people laugh in the Holy Spirit? I have. There's joy over the repentance of the sinners. In Acts fifteen, Paul and Barnabas, therefore being brought on their way by the church, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of Gentiles, and they cause great joy unto all the brethren. And here they were. I imagine some of these people were Jewish people, and they were Jewish believers, and yet they heard that the Gentiles were receiving the Lord and being saved.
And what happened? They rejoiced. These other people, they can be saved too. And they heard about people being saved, and they rejoiced. Are you the kind of a Christian that rejoices when somebody else has been successful in winning some souls. I hope you are. Even if they don't do it the way we do it, you still rejoice? I hope so. Even if they do things we wouldn't dare do, you still rejoice? I hope so.
Even if they put emphasis on something and we don't put emphasis and they still see souls saved, people brought into the kingdom, you rejoice? I hope so. What Paul said in Philippians one, seventeen and eighteen. Now, Paul said, I don't care whether they're preaching out of envy or what, what are they doing. He says, listen, as long as Christ has been preached and souls are being blessed, And people are being stirred and brought God with peace and praise the Lord.
If it's getting done, whether I'm doing it or not, doesn't matter. God is doing it. And that is what counts. Paul was a big enough man not to be jealous when somebody that didn't dot his eye and caught the tea the way he did was doing a job for the Lord and the Lord was using him. He was big enough to rejoice. Another reason is a joy that a Christian can have. This is one of the joys that comes to a servant of the Lord and to a Christian, whether he'd be what we call full-time or not.
Doesn't matter. We all have had this experience, I hope. It's when we see a believer, G-R-O-W-I-N-G, gross. Brother Bob leaned over to me a little while ago and he said, that's brother so-and-so and he's growing so in the Lord. What a blessing. He's growing. My wife and I, our baby is now ten years old. In fact, it will be in a few weeks. So we don't have a baby if you know what I mean. We're getting anxious to have some babies.
Well, we've got a daughter-in-law in there, and we're going to have another one in July, so just you wait. It won't be too long, see? Probably be worse over our grandchildren than we were over our children. But you know, a baby is a wonderful, wonderful thing, but it sure is terrible if that baby hasn't grown. And it grieves the heart of us. If we see someone who professes to know the Lord... and how thrilled we are when they're little babies. But if they stay babies, tragedy. So we love to see somebody grow and mature and getting stronger and stronger in the things of the Lord.
A young man came into the store one day. He said, Mr. Hugh, you don't know me. He said, my name is Paul Ashmore. He said, I used to play in the band at Flora High School about three or four years ago with your son, Gil. And he said, we used to try to get Gil to take drinks with us. We went off on trips and said, he wouldn't do it. He said, we kind of gave him a hard time. He said, I just thought you'd like to know I've been saved. I said, well, Paul, tell me that. He said, well, it's a long story. He said, I went from bad to worse. I went to the university and got in with the wrong crowd and said, from drinking I went into gambling.
And from gambling I went into dope. And he said, in order to pay my gambling debt, I began to steal. And he said, when you start stealing, you're going to get caught. Senator O'Leary says, I got caught and I got into trouble. And in order to pay my debt off, I had to quit school and go out and get a job. He said, but I couldn't find a job. He said, in fact, the only job I could find was was being the night watchman at the Columbia Bible College. So here's the night watchman. And so the person that hired him knew all about his difficulties. And so they're very convenient. They put little gospel booklets around them to read, you know.
After all night watchman, all he does is get up every so many minutes and go punch a clock, you know. And so there's nothing to do but sit there and read books which someone conveniently puts that one to read. And so they put two or three of Stephen over his little books there for him to read. And right in the middle of him one morning, about three o'clock, you know the rest. He found the Lord. And when he found the Lord, he was delivered. And so now he's in his third year at the Bible College. And he used to come into the store and get an arm full of tracks and go out on the street to give out tracks to the servicemen and invite him into the servicemen. So he told me Gil would have just been in the army when he first came in.
He said, he right here, I'm telling him, Paul asked, Lord, has been saved. His prayers have been him. Grow it in the Lord. Well, I'll tell you, it breaks your heart if you see someone who doesn't grow physically. It'll break your heart even more if you see people that are not growing spiritually. And they have ever reason in the world to grow spiritually if they would. But when a person is growing in the Lord, it brings joy. There's an interesting story about people growing in the Lord in Nehemiah, H, Tien, and Swell.
Don't you turn to it. Because I can do it quicker. And we'll read it. And then we'll go on to the next talk. We're going to have to get in a new Bible because this one's not turning this fast. Here we are right here. Nehemiah H, verses ten and twelve. Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Verse twelve. And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great mercy, comma. because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
They understood the words that had been declared unto them. All right. Paul says, I have great joy because of our comfort in your love. Another reason for joy is answered prayer. Now I wonder how many people have prayed for something, and they've seen the Lord really undertake more. And they've seen prayer answers. I think that one of the reasons so few people see answers to prayer is because very few of us know anything about what it means to persevere in prayer.
We get discouraged. we lose the niche and we forget to pray and keep praying and keep praying. So we don't see many answers to pray. I think you'll find that the people who have prayed and seen God answer prayer are the people who have learned what it means to pray as though it all depends upon God and then get out and work as though it depends upon us. but they know that God is the one who's going to give the fruit and who's going to give the increase. All right, now these are some of the special reasons why people can rejoice in the Lord.
Now very quickly, what are the permanent reasons? Number one, here's the reason that you're with us all the time and we can rejoice in it. Number one, God is with us. Let's say that again. God is with us. Regardless of circumstances. Regardless of conditions. God is with you. And I was thinking as our brother, one of our brothers prayed in his prayer about the people perhaps behind what we call the iron curtain.
You know what? God's with them. And compared to us, some of them are very rich. They have some joys in their tribulation and troubles and difficulties and problems and persecution that you and I know nothing about. And many of them are very, very fortunate. because they have been given the privilege of suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are reminded more often than we are when they are hedged in from every side.
They are reminded God is rich. In Psalm forty-three we read God is my exceeding joy. What about the one in Habakkuk? Habakkuk three, seventeen. I imagine most of you people know this with a heart. Listen to this. This is what he said. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no period in the stalls.
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. And he will make my feet like hind feet. And he shall make me a walk upon nine high places to the chief singer of my string incidents. All right. The second reason is the realization that God has spoken and that he will enable us to understand his word. I'm sure that most of us do not fully appreciate this book.
The completed revelation, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, David, Jonathan, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, none of these men has what you and I have. We have the completed Word of God and how thankful we should be and how we should rejoice that we have this Word. All right, to the third avenue. By which the Holy Spirit brings joy into our heart, and I'm leaving out some because my wife keeps reminding me that I've gone all the time.
All right. So if you want to get all of it, I'll let you have it later if you come to me privately. All right. The third avenue of joy is the consciousness that believers have, that Christians have, when we know that God has spoken to us, told us to do something, and we've done it. In other words, when we've been obedient to Him. When God has warned us about an apparent danger or temptation, and by God's grace we've been tempted, we've been tried, and we've come through faithful to Him, that brings joy and a light.
When others have fallen, others have succumbed, others have given way to the temptations of the world. by God's grace we've been faithful and true to him there's a joy there that you don't know unless you've experienced what I'm talking about John the Baptist was a wonderful example of this I love the way the Apostle John puts it here but he says he must increase talking about the Lord Jesus John could have stolen a little of the Lord's thunder right here, you know it.
But John said, He must increase, but I must decrease. And the fourth and final reason for joy at all times, regardless of what the circumstance is, is a realization that you and I who have been saved by God's grace have a happy relationship with all those who've been born into God's family. That those in the world know absolutely nothing about.
I don't know how many of you men ever go to a club, you know, like a Rotary or Kiwanis or Civitans club or something like that. mean. Do you see that tremendous difference? Because these people who know not the Lord, they don't begin to have the fellowship that we who know the Lord have.
Ephesians three, and this is the last, and fourteen. This one will verse Once again, my friend Dr. William Culberson shared this with me, and I'm sharing it with you. He said that he was reading this portion here in Ephesians, and he wondered what in the world it meant, and then the Lord spoke to him and told him. He says, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole Family. The whole family.
Where else? In heaven. His name. And then he said it hit me like a ton of bricks. What in the world is he talking about? He's talking about the whole family. And I am part of the family. thought none of them. You wouldn't get through before midnight. You wouldn't be through this time tomorrow. And they're all well. And you and I are members of that family. Now you talking about a family, brother, sister, that is a family.
And you are in the family. The whole family. This is just part of the family down here. This is just the beginning of it. The rest of the family has gone on. And someday,