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I wonder if you ever thought along these lines, when it comes to checking out the health of our bodies, there's an instrument that we use called a thermometer, it checks the temperature. And we use it to find out what our body temperature is so that we can see the range and if it's normal or not normal so we can see what kind of physical health we're in.
And I want to challenge you this morning, if there was such a thing as a rejoice-ometer or a joy meter, if there were such an instrument and somehow it could gauge in your life as a believer in Jesus Christ, the degree, the measure of your joy and my joy, how would we fare?
How well would we do? And that's basically the message, it's going to be, and I was thinking, what book in the Bible that Paul wrote would be one that dealt with the subject of joy? And I'm hearing it, it is the book of Philippians, which I'd like for you to turn to, please.
I will be giving an overview of this book, hopefully, so I'll encourage you, if you haven't read it in a while, to read it, to glean from it, to be blessed by it. And I apologize up front that it will be a lot of overview and we won't be going right text for text and it'll be near the end of the message where we will drill home on one point and I will do, I will pull a Dave Jeffries on you, it'll be, you'll hear, I'll be hitting that nail with a hammer over and over and over again so that we can get it, because I did it in my study and I needed it and we all need a reminder, but it'll be one place that we'll focus on.
But if you would turn in Philippians to chapter four, please, Philippians four, where the Apostle Paul wrote, and I read from the King James, therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved, I beseech Yodius and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, this is your word. It's a time where we come before it.
We pray that in this time the spirit of God would certainly teach us as he has always been so faithful to do up until this point. Lord, we hope in you. We trust you. We ask you to change us. We ask you to so work upon our lives as this book says God is working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure work and continue your work.
We do not want to stay the same. We so want to strive as the apostle Paul taught even in this book for Christ likeness, to be like him, to be found in him, to know him, to have fellowship in his sufferings, to be like him in the way that we live and move and have our being.
So Lord, we pray in Jesus' name that you would help us. Power in this pulpit, Lord, that your word would go forth. Power in the pew that we would hear it and our hearts would be open to it and that we would walk in the way of the Lord and be obedient and glorify Christ and we ask it in his name.
Amen. Well in this letter, this is one of the happiest of one of Paul's letters that he wrote to the church and it has a great theme threaded through it of the theme of joy. Paul's heart is open to these brethren.
You see that in chapter 4, I mean through the book, but in chapter 4 he calls them his dearly beloved, his longed for, his joy and crown and he ends that verse again with his dearly, with a dearly beloved.
His heart went out to these people. It's a personal love letter from Paul to them because of his care for them, because of their care for him and it was a letter not only beneficial for those saints of old, but it's also applicable for us today.
These saints had spiritual needs and we have spiritual needs and we need to be instructed on how to walk in the way of the Lord more perfectly or in a more mature way. That is why the word of God is so important.
That's why it's so important for us to listen, to hear, for us to have a desire as we come in to the service, not only to sing unto the Lord and sing to the glory of the Lord and to give when the offering plate is passed to the glory of the Lord, but also to listen and to hear the message so that we might live to the glory of the Lord after we hear this message.
Not just to have another check mark that we have done it, but we hear and we desire to be changed. Every experience, every question, every situation has been dealt with or can be dealt with with scripture.
So what Paul wrote to the church of Philippi is very needful and relevant for us today. It's important for us to remember that when he's writing, and I'm of course focusing in on joy, the joy-o-meter, the rejoice-o-meter, and how we measure up, how we are doing, it's important for us to realize that in the background of the writing of this, of all of the Pauline letters that deal with this subject throughout, Paul is writing from prison.
He was incarcerated in Rome. He was most likely locked up in a type of dungeon with soldiers chained to him most of the time. And as a prisoner, he writes to this church that was formed through his gospel ministry.
If you go back and you read Acts chapter 16, you see the gospel going into that region of Europe for the first time. His ministry there, maybe some 10 years previous to writing of this letter, he had a particular reason for writing them.
They had sent him a gift through the hand of Epaphroditus, who while in Rome became sick and he almost died, but he recovered. And now he's going to carry this letter back to Philippi to these saints and Paul is pouring out his heart to them.
He wants to tell them how grateful he is to them and how much he loves them and he cares for them. You see that in chapter 4 in verse 10, he says, but I rejoice in the Lord. Notice the theme again. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me has flourished again, wherein you also were careful, but you lacked opportunity.
He was saying he was rejoicing. He was such gratitude for what they had done for him. And in this letter, Paul shows that there is life giving. There is life changing. There is life sustaining power in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That gospel that had come to them to change their lives, the gospel that it had come to him, Christ arresting Paul on the road to Damascus and saving his wretched soul like saving our wretched souls. God had done this in their lives, in his life.
And he wants to demonstrate it. He wants to teach. He wants to admonish you not only in thanking them, but he wants to remind them of what it is all about to be a Christian, to live like a person who has been saved by this gospel.
This is a very practical letter. Many of Paul's writings are full of doctrine, and he applies that doctrine. Philippians is not void of doctrine. There is, but it's overall more practical. And he shows how the gospel is relevant and applicable in the everyday life of a Christian, in the day-to-day step walking, in the life of a local New Testament church even, how people ought to deal with each other and have the relationships and what kinds of things should be going on.
Paul describes for us the conditions of this church as you go through, and I believe their example should challenge us. I mean, they were givers. If you ever go and study, you look at 2 Corinthians, they're the ones that supported the Apostle Paul, and he says that, and that's why he's thanking them through this letter.
Their hearts were in the ministry. It says of them that they gave themselves first. They gave themselves, and then their heart was given over to the Lord, and because their heart was, their wallet was, their bank account was, their giving was appropriate.
They gave themselves to the Lord, being willing and wholly submitted to the will of God, and it resulted in unselfishness in the giving of themselves to others, as they did when they supported Paul's ministry and met his needs time and time again.
They were devoted to the cause of Christ, and they proved it in their actions. Also in this church, we know that there was unity. Outside of this one verse here that we read in verse 2, where there was some type of issue that was between these two women in the church, there is no other pointedness as far as Paul pointing out things that they're doing wrong, like you read in the book of Corinthians or other ones, Galatians.
But this church, no doubt, was known for its unity that was present, harmonious living together. They were a people who loved each other, and all of this was due also to the power of the gospel. They were living lives, as it says in chapter 1 and in verse 27, Paul, when he admonishes them, he says, only let your conversation, let your manner of living, may your behavior be as it becomes the gospel of Christ.
May your life be for fitting the gospel of Christ, and I'll touch more on that as I apply near the end of this message. Again, think of Paul before he was saved, persecuting Christians, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, driven by hatred of the life and teaching of the carpenter's son called Jesus.
But he's a different man now. Again, Jesus had come to him. He was not seeking the Lord. He was seeking those that love the Lord, and he wanted to persecute them. He hated them. But now he loves Jesus Christ.
God has saved him. He's a child of God. His personal testimony is in chapter 4, where he had all these great achievements, and he pulls out and he lists all of his great credentials, all the degrees that he had, if you were to put it in today's language, all his accomplishments, and he said it was all rubbish.
It meant nothing if he did not have Jesus Christ. And he wanted Christ, and it was not that he wanted him before he was saved, but God had desired to save Paul and did, and then he had taken out his stony heart and put in a heart of flesh that now beat for God, and Paul pursued, and his passion was Jesus Christ.
It was a passion not to be the passion of every believer. That's Paul's desire to be found in him, that I might know him, and he's still pressing on after all these years of ministry. He's still pressing on for this closeness and this fellowship with the Lord.
He's a new creature in Christ. The gospel had become the power of God to change his heart and make him a new creature in Christ, and that is what the gospel can do. And similar wonderful things took place in the lives of those that are involved in this church.
You remember in Acts chapter 16 when Paul goes to, here's the Macedonian call, the song that we sing, and he goes to Philippi, and Lydia, cellar of purple, by the river, prayer meeting, Paul comes, God opens her heart, and she receives the gospel.
She receives the word gladly. Remember shortly after that, there's a young demon-possessed girl who is set free, and she becomes a changed woman, and was counted among the believers. Then a hardened Philippian jailer, no doubt a rough and somewhat violent man, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is transformed by the glorious gospel.
The next thing we see him doing is opening up his home for fellowship, washing Paul and Silas' wounds for the whipping that they had received at his hand. He's baptized, he shares his food, and it also says that he is one who is rejoicing.
You cannot read the history of the early church in the book of Acts without encountering this one fact. When the gospel is preached, it is followed by joy. When the gospel is preached, you look at Philip going into Samaria, I believe, it's in Acts chapter 8, and he preaches the gospel, and it says that there was joy in that city.
Go through, see if the people, are they ho-humming after the gospel comes? It's, oh, woe is me, same old, same old. Remember I've talked about this before, the old Eeyore syndrome? No, when the gospel is preached, people understand that they did not deserve to be saved by the grace of God.
They deserve damnation, separation from God, and yet God in his mercy, in his great love wherewith he hath loved us, has quickened us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we come to a knowledge of Christ, sins forgiven, becoming the children of God.
And this took place in the lives of these people. And particularly in that man and others, they were singing praises to God. They're exuberantly singing praises unto the Lord. Remember, joy-o-meter.
Where's that level? This isn't in the notes, and it's terrible. You know, they say don't go off your notes too much, but I've got to do this one. When Pardeep Tilak, Elder Tilak stood up here, as soon as his feet hit this platform, I wanted to not get up and just clap for the Mozambique team.
I was glad. I give honor where honor is due. God used them. I know they sacrificed, and we thank the Lord for their faithfulness to go. But I wanted to get up and be like the psalmist. Oh, clap your hands unto the Lord.
The trees do. I mean, they sing praises in the trees of the field. They clap their hands, don't they? I wanted to just clap. Praise the Lord. They're back. God has been marvelous on their behalf. I've got to get back to my notes.
I can't lose too much time here. But those people in Philippi had obtained the same precious faith and the gift of salvation through the gospel of Christ, and Paul fondly remembers the days that he was with them.
Look back in Philippians 1 -3. This is a verse that you are fully aware of. He said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. He just loved these people, and he just loved the memories of them, of what God had done in and through when he was there amongst them, ministering, preaching, teaching, laboring, and seeing them grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
And now he hears word. He knows what's going on in the church. He writes back to them, and he is just exuberant. He is full of joy, and he writes with joy, and he writes with passion, and he writes with a sense of victory, or victory in Jesus.
He's writing in such a way, and yet, where is he? He's in prison. I mean, we get a hangnail, and life is over, right? Flat tire, might as well shut down the rest of the year, right? A little sliver. It's the end of the world.
Paul's in prison, and yet he can rejoice. I'm going to kind of, I'll touch on that a little bit later, but I want you to think about that. I want us to think about that. When it comes to the things of life that God brings our way, the circumstances, the issues that Pastor Steve had brought up, I mean, where is the joy found?
What is the source of it? In what sphere, so to speak, or what realm, where is that joy to be found? Sadly, in the world, there's a sphere that God says, or this place that you find this joy, and I know that some of you are thinking, oh, why use the word place?
I don't want to tip the hat too early, but here's where you find joy, and sadly, in the world, people are looking outside, outside for other things, but that only bring temporal joy. So I look at this book as relevant.
God's Word does direct us so that we can correct our errors and that we can learn so that we can be fully equipped to live as bright, shining testimonies in the world in which we live. I mean, think about it, folks.
The world that we live in is in a horrible mess. Apostle Peter, when he preached the beginning of the book of Acts, he said, he didn't say, save yourselves from this little bit messed up world. He said, save yourselves from this perverse generation, from this twisted, crooked system, this world full of sin, opposed to God, rebellious, fighting against God.
We live in an unhappy world where people are miserable, they're distressed, they're constantly fighting, there's animosity and bickering. We can ask ourselves, is there anything that can stem the tide?
Is there anything that can bring hope? Are there any group of people who of all the people on the face of the earth ought to be absolutely so powerfully, overwhelmingly different that the world can see that God has done something in the lives of those people?
And certainly, that's the church. Certainly, that's in the life of the believer. We see all around us anger and rivalries and hatred and bitterness. And people are playing with their toys, but they're not happy.
They got temporal happiness, but not lasting real joy. There's no true... And I'm not preaching a happiness gospel. I hope you don't get that. It's not that the Bible says that we ought to be happy and that Brother Dave's preaching up there and he says, everybody be happy.
No, it's not be this. It is because God has done something in our lives, it results in this joy. There's a difference. Don't seek the joy. Don't put your eggs in that one basket. But if we look to the right place, really tip of my hat, if we look to the right person, then we find only lasting joy.
There's life and love and lasting joy. Lord Jesus found in thee, a song writer once wrote. Who can bring this testimony to people who are truly not happy? What is the answer? How can harmony and peace be brought back into relationships?
How can someone see a life worth living that has meaning? A life which is focused and has a passion for Christ? How can someone possess true joy and contentment? Who are the people that are supposed to have these answers?
Of course, it's the church of Jesus Christ. And there's nothing short of the power of the gospel of Christ working in our lives that brings us to that place. It is not of us, of course. We know that. It is not us.
It is God, as it says in chapter 2 and in verse 12. It is God who, I mean verse 13, is God who is working in us, as it says in that verse, to will and to do of His good pleasure. Paul said in chapter 1 and verse 6, he says he knew that God, he was confident that God who had begun the work in you would perform it to the day of Jesus Christ.
God is doing something. He's not the deist God who has created His world and it's like a watch or a clock that He's made and He's just kind of left it over there and He's abandoned it and He has nothing to do with it.
God is involved in His creation and God is involved in your life if you're a believer. God cares about you. That's why you can cast all your care upon Him because He cares for you. What a friend we have in Jesus, I was thinking.
I was thinking while that song was being played, no one ever cared for me like Jesus, that hymn. There's never been a friend so kind and true. No one else can take the sin and the darkness from me. Oh, how much He cares for you.
Only the gospel can produce a change in the tone of earthly relationships. Only the gospel can bring joy. It is known as good news. It is known as tidings of great what? When it spoke of Jesus, great joy that would come.
In the life of this Christian community at Philippi, we see difficulties handled properly and their disagreements were put aside. We see believers really caring for the interests of others. Epaphroditus gives himself for other believers to the point of death.
Paul gives himself over and over again, pouring out himself and it's through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit within us that this takes place. It is Christ in you that enables the believer to triumph over circumstances and truly rejoice in the Lord and also enables us to show joy in an unhappy world.
In a world that has no reason to truly be happy that has eternal ramifications. It's all fleeting. It's all temporary. It's all a puff in the wind. It's a balloon that's easily broken when people look at you, look around, you look at your, your, those that are outside of Christ, you look at those that, that are looking for happiness, but they're looking in the wrong things and places.
So this is a relevant message for us today. The world needs to see a crisp testimony of a life personally as individual believers in as a church of Philippians 127, that we live a life that fits the gospel.
If the shoe fits, wear it. You hear, well, if, if we're truly saved, if we're truly believers, then this gospel by which we've been saved, our lives should fit it. It should, it should make sense. There should be a matching up gospel of joy, life of joy, gospel that saves a life that has lived in the, in the realm of the, or the, the, the sphere of that salvation.
And this is a lesson that we ought to learn well today and pay attention to us and, and pray to God that, that we as individuals in a church would live this way. Again, I keep going back and forth. I'm a, I won't go there.
Survey the, the apostle Paul's testimony for a moment. He's a believer in Christ. He's part of the Lord's army. He's a faithful servant of God, willing slave of, of Christ. He once hated Christians and now God has made him one.
I mean, I remember the day when I was in high school and I thought those Christians were weird. I mean, there were guys sitting around the table, guys and girls sitting around the table in the college.
I mean, the high school cafeteria reading the Bible and talking about things and they were, they were different. And now I am one praise the Lord. You know, I know what it means now. I understand that before I was blinded, before you were blinded to the truth, we had no comprehension of what it meant that we were running from God and that we were the enemies of God and that we were, that we, that there was this animosity fighting against God.
And certainly we never can win. I mean, as fast as we could, we were running away from God, but God arrested us. Thank the Lord. And we're now his, Paul's his, his life demonstrates a theme of giving himself for the Lord.
But in one area, this one area, it just, as I thought of this message, here he is in prison and he's still caring about other people. He's still wanting to help them. He's, he loves them. He, he shows that there he's, I mean, it's, it's this, you know, in the words that you see when Paul expresses his love, it's those, it's that word that you can't pronounce with all those consonants, you know, in the English and it's from the bowels.
It's, it's just a passion and a love that he has for them because God has given him that. I mean, that is one sign of a person who is a believer. The apostle John wrote it, wrote that first John, I believe in chapter three.
If you look in there, it talks about how that if you claim, if you, if God has saved you, if you believe and you're saved, then you have a love for the brethren. If you hate your brother, then you don't have any reason to think that you're a believer.
But Paul was different. He loved the, the belief, the believers. He loved the Lord. And in his circumstances that were difficult, he writes to them this love letter and a theme that runs through it is joy, joy.
And we have a bad week and we're ready to, we're ready to spit nails and choose somebody's head off. We're, we're, we're ready to, to, to throw the pity party because it just didn't go the way that we thought it ought to.
And he is days and weeks and months in prison. And yet he demonstrates this theme of triumphing over our circumstances. Now we, he's, as he's writing is in this hard place where he is, there's a lot against him in the spite of it all.
He writes this wonderful epistle and it's nothing less. This is nothing less than spiritual victory over physical circumstances and surroundings. And it's all because of Jesus Christ. And we today, like Paul, do not know what is going to happen next, but we do know that if God would bestow grace and strength upon us as he did to Paul and as he did to these Philippian believers, then we would be able to handle what comes our way properly.
We'd be able to, we'd be able to see it in the right, without a correct eyesight. Martin Lloyd-Jones put it this way. This is nothing, speaking of Paul's life and, and kind of admonishing us too for today.
This is nothing but Christian, this is nothing but Christian experience. It is to know and experience the power of the Lord in our own personal lives. Because brethren, one day, sooner or later in life, and certainly you've experienced it, you've even heard about it in the life of those in the church, those who you look at week to week in the church, we will all find ourselves in some way, shape or form, so to speak, in some type of prison or confinement or a pressing in or distressing time, some trying circumstance or situation.
Our circumstances will not be so pleasant as maybe they are now. Your prison, so to speak, might be an accident, a sickness, a terrible loss, a sense of loneliness, a ripped relationship, a hospital bed, a physical or mental handicap, a period of unemployment, or some other sorrow event.
And your circumstances, so to speak, may put you in prison and lock the door and throw away the key and you can't get out. You haven't got the strength, but we know where that strength can be found. We know that as the Apostle Paul wrote in this book, that we are to be a people who do rejoice.
I mean, he says that in chapter 3, verse 1, doesn't he? Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. I like that. That's like one of those schemes of a preacher, you know? And from my last point, and then you preach for 30 more minutes, right?
Finally, he says in the beginning of chapter 3, and he writes chapter 3 and 4, there's so much more to say, but here he says that we are to rejoice in the Lord. That's the admonishment. That's the place where we're going to get to as I look at a specific text.
I want us to be thinking along these lines of how well is it that we would do or measure up if they could stick the joy-o-meter, the rejoice-o-meter in us? What degree of joy would there be? The reason why I was thinking along these lines of this message is that if ever there was a time when the world needs to see a clear and crisp witness and a bright testimony, brethren, it's the day in which we live.
It's now. And I believe that it can only come from the lives of those that are living a Christ-like life, as Paul admonishes through this book. I mean, he said that his life was Jesus Christ. Philippians 121, 4, to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
Everything about the Apostle Paul was Christ. Christ was all that he needed, all that he wanted, and truly the same passion ought to be ours for us to live is Christ. I believe that the answer comes or the testimony comes or that difference is shown when we live pure and harmonious lives within the church, too.
We let them know that in our church, I mean, what is BBC known for and what ought to be we desire to be known for in the community? I take seminary classes and I listen to the instructors that have been teaching for years and years and years and they give examples over and over again of not good examples of churches that they've been to or churches that they have heard of where they are a blotch in the community.
They are known to not live the way that they preach or the tongues of their shoes don't match the tongues of their mouths, so to speak. They live contrary to the gospel and we, as the people of God, can show them by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God in us, working in us, conforming us to the image of Christ, being faithful to Christ in our daily walk, in our deportment or the way that we handle ourselves, we can be a witness of the grace of God.
We can be trophies of grace and we ought to be. One of the areas that we ought to be trophies of grace in is when the way that we deal with death and sorrow and pain and crosses and accidents and sufferings and losses and prisons.
I believe that one of the things that comes forth in the life of a believer in those circumstances, because it has nothing to do with the circumstances, is true joy. Now, if we were to look at this book, we would see that Paul, as I said, threads this how to rejoice in the Lord or how to shine brightly in a dark world being a joyful people or how to triumph in your tribulation and live this joyful, radiant life in Christ throughout the letter.
I mean, you look in chapter 1 and in verse 4, he says, when it comes to rejoicing, do it in prayer. And then in chapter 1, verse 17 and 18, he says there's a joy when it comes to the gospel with it being preached.
And even in that case, there are people preaching it to make life difficult for the apostle Paul, but he was still joyful that the gospel was going forth. He says in chapter 2 and verses 1 and 2 that we ought to be a people who are rejoicing in our Christian fellowship.
If there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love to one and any fellowship of the spirit, any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and one mind.
There's a joy in fellowship. There's also a joy when others are sacrificing for the cause. We see this in chapter 2 and in verses 17 and 18, yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy.
He says, if I be burned up like a candle, I joy. I mean, that's what it's all about. I mean, we're in the Bible. Somebody tell me what version of the Bible, maybe it's in I am. There's a dog food that's a name like that, isn't there?
But I am, I am. That's I am Bible. You find this phrase. It's all about me, right? That's the, that is the thrust today. It's all about me. Uh, newsflash. It's all about him. It's all about Christ. It's all about serving him.
It's all about, it's all about, I mean, joy. You've heard this a hundred million times. If you've been a believer, joy is Jesus first, it's others second and it's you last. But the problem is we got a yard.
Yard is the, the, the theme, the motto of the church today. Seriously, it's, it's pathetic. It's me. What can I get when I walk in that door? What am I going to get from other people? What am I going to hear from pastor Mike or the password is going to preach?
Give me, give me. No, it's Jesus first. It's Christ. It's his glory. It's all about him. And then before you, it's other people. That's what he said in, in chapter two, notice what he says in chapter two, right after the verses I was reading verse three to three, let nothing be done through strife or, uh, or vain glory.
This empty can see, but in lowliness of minor and you with humility, let each esteem or regard the other person better than themselves. So other people are more important than me or you. And then in verse four, look not every man on his own things or his own interests, but every man also on the things or the interests of others.
Paul was also said in this chapter, he says in verse 20, I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. He says, I don't have anybody who can go into the church of Philippi and care about you because he says in verse 21, they seek their own, they seek their own selfish pursuits, their own carnal pursuits, their own pleasure.
He says, but not the things which are in, which are Jesus Christ's, their interests are skewed. It's all about them. And I, this is not even this message, but if you are discouraged, if you feel like you're not going anywhere, if you feel like you're not accomplishing anything, the problem might be is that you're looking in the mirror too much and you're looking at your own self and you're trying to take care of yourself first, take care of somebody else, serve somebody else, pour out your heart to somebody else.
Care about the interests of others. Jesus did. Our Lord Jesus did. I mean, think about what he did when he saved us. Everything. Left the fellowship of his father, left the glory and splendor of heaven, chapter two.
And he came down and was made in the likeness of sinful men. He died on a cross so that we could be saved. Think of that selflessness and think of other people first before yourselves. Rejoice when other people are giving themselves for the cause.
But then I've got to get to the point where he rejoiced in chapter four and in verse 10 for the care of the church for him, but for the conclusion of this message. And I won't pull a chapter three forward which takes 30 minutes, but if it's 10 or 15, that'll be okay.
I think we'll be just fine. In chapter four and in verse four, hopefully to be able to drill this into our hearts today, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. These words come to us, church.
These words come to us, Bethlehem Bible Church. These words come to us, every believer who names the name of Christ. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Did you notice that he did not say rejoice in your possessions?
He didn't say rejoice in your health. He did not say rejoice in your wealth. Rejoice in your friends always. And again, I say rejoice no. He didn't say rejoice in your ministry. He did not say rejoice in your job and your accomplishments and your promotions.
I'm not saying that we're not supposed to be happy about those types of things or any of those, but what is similar in every single one of those? You can be robbed of every one of those. They're fleeting.
They're temporary. Your health can go in a moment. We've seen it. You've experienced it most likely. One day you're well, the next day you're not. Our possessions gone in a moment like wings can fly away.
Our friends can either move away or they can run away from you. Ministry, it isn't always full of joy. There are many hardships there. Your job can be lost tomorrow. It can be gone, so to speak. All these things.
These things cannot make you happy. They cannot bring true joy, lasting joy. They can bring temporal, temporary joy. But the scripture here says this word rejoice and the word rejoice in the Greek means to be cheerful.
Be cheerful. To be calmly happy. This is in a spiritual sense. It's to be calmly happy. It's a sense of well-being. The only illustration that I could think of for this is you've heard the account of the life of Horatio Spafford, I'm sure.
The man who wrote the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. I won't go into the whole long story of it, but when Horatio Spafford lost his daughters, his children on a ship. He sent his wife and children on a ship.
He could not go. He had to take care of some business. The children died. The wife was the only one that lived. She telegraphed back to him that the children were lost. She was the only one that was saved alive.
He then got on a ship to go be with his wife again and got to the point of where that other ship went down and his children were lost. He penned the words of that hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. Listen to this.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. Did he get that in a crackerjack box?
Think about it. Did he get that from reading some feel-good editorial in the paper? Absolutely not. I would say that he didn't even find joy at that spot in the boat. He brought joy with him. There's a difference.
He brought it with him and I know that's a, I've got to think of this properly, he's a Christian saved by the grace of God and it's because Christ is in him and it's because he's owned of the Lord, purchased by the blood of Christ, that he is one who can rejoice in any circumstance that came his way, even this most difficult one.
I just can't imagine his children being gone. Joy is found in Christ. Joy is, remember the circle earlier, Jesus Christ is the reason and the only reason why we have joy and Jesus Christ is the sphere, so to speak, in which we can only find that joy.
It's in Christ, not in anything else. Cheerfulness, calm delight, no matter what happens, no matter what comes our way. We can be robbed of everything else, but we cannot be robbed of Christ. Other things can be taken away, but your eternal life cannot be taken away.
You can lose things and have great losses, but you cannot lose your salvation. It is secure. As sure as God is, is almighty and strong and powerful and in Jesus said that no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
No man is able to take them out of my hand. They shall never perish, triple negative in the Greek, never, never, not in any way, shape or form, male, female, neuter. It can't be done. It can't be lost.
I'll bet there's somebody in this room, because this happened to me when I one day was studying this, the spirit of God just showing this text. I'll bet there may be somebody, I don't like betting, I don't like that word.
There is someone here, as a believer, you've never thought of this verse this way. You've just thought, I need to rejoice a lot. Rejoice, I just rejoice in the Lord always. And there is an emphasis there.
Paul says it always and he says it's repeated to show the importance of this, but rejoice in the Lord. That phrase is so important. Rejoice in the Lord. He is the reason for our joy. He is the sphere in which we, the only one that we find our joy.
It's Christ. I can kind of illustrate this practically as far as how it ought to rubber meets the road and come to us. I read the account of a man who was in a church and he didn't have a ministry. And he went to the pastor and he asked the pastor, what should I do?
And the pastor suggested that he go to the local rescue mission. If you don't know what a rescue mission is, in some, excuse me, in major cities, there's a place where those that are homeless can come.
They can get a meal, a bed, be taken care of. But Christians have rescue missions so that when they come in, they can preach the gospel to them with a desire that they'd be saved. So he said, go down to the rescue mission.
He went down there, talked to the superintendent of the mission and he said, what I'd like for you to do is go out on the street and invite people to come in. Invite the people to come in here. So he went out.
And with his mournful, Eeyore-like, sad disposition, he was, come on in. No results whatsoever. None. And then finally someone came to him and he finally learned his lesson when he said, come on in. It's really great in here.
You'll hear some really good stuff. And the man cynically turned to him and he said, no thanks. I've got my own problems. You know what he was saying? He said, look, you got nothing better than what I got.
I got problems. You got problems. If that, is that what you want me to come in and be like? And I wonder how we would fare if we were him. Listen, why did Paul over and over and over again in this book, it's joy.
It's rejoicing. Chapter 3 .1. Finally, brethren, rejoice. And he can't contain himself and he goes and then he comes back to it in 4 .4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. To Paul, it was a tragedy for a believer to be unhappy and cheerless.
To not have joy. It goes against the gospel that he preached. I mean, the gospel that brings good news, which brings joy. For a believer, I mean, it goes against that gospel for a believer in that gospel to be unhappy or to not exhibit joy in their lives.
And we need to examine ourselves. I mean, and I'm not talking about, it's got to be, it's got to be every day, every minute, all the time. Are we going to hurt at times? Yes. Because we suffer losses.
But in those losses and in those crosses and in that suffering and in those trials, we see that underneath of the everlasting arms, there is a sureness. There's a confidence. There's a security that our God is unassailable.
Nobody, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do unto me? There's, there is nothing, there is nothing on in heaven and earth.
Romans chapter eight. I'm convinced Paul uses these words. I'm persuaded in second Timothy, persuaded that the, he, that I've, that I've committed my soul to will keep it. And he said in Romans chapter eight, he said, I'm persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.
Any other creatures shall be able to what? Separate from me, from the life, from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing can. I've just lost a great friend. I mean, not me personally, but I mean, we, we have enjoys, enjoy smackalow, but we cry at the funeral and yet we rejoice with joy unspeakable because she's in the presence of the Lord.
You, you go and open up your checkbook and it's just not there and you're hurting and you're, you're, you're wondering, how am I going to pay the next bill? But underneath it all, you know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
We know that this, this just a confidence that it is well with our souls, that all is well. God is still on the throne. God still loves us and he still cares for us and he's not abandoned us. There's no such thing as someone becoming a believer and then being orphaned.
It's just not in the Bible. It's eternal life. How long is that? It's forgiveness of all your sins. Never. I mean, we, we saw this morning, pastor Steve's a reading. Where do our sins go? Behind God's back.
I believe it was in there. Wasn't it brother behind our behind God's back. You played that game when you were little. Maybe you played that game last week. You'd stick something on somebody's back. Why?
Because they can't see it there. God does not see our sins. Great losses, but God does not see our sins any longer. They're separated from us as far as the East is from the West. And here we have all this proof and we look at all that God has done for us in Christ.
And sometimes we just don't have the joy, not all the time. I'm not saying it has to be all the time, but it ought to be persistently demonstrated in our lives. It ought to be the tone. It ought to be something that people see on the job, at home, at the church, wherever, even when things are difficult.
Are we saying that we believe in Jesus Christ and we've been made God's children and forgiven on our way to heaven and be glum and mournful and unhappy. Hear me, a Christian who is unhappy is missing something, missing something.
I mean, if, if a fish is not swimming, it's missing something. It's life. If a bird isn't flying, there's something wrong. If, if you've, if you've got a flashlight and you turn it on and there's only flash and no light, there's a problem.
Christians are worshiping people. They are singing people. They are obedient people. They are caring people and they are rejoicing people, people who rejoice. Maybe you're not joyful here this morning because you are not in a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
Maybe you don't rejoice in the Lord because the Lord is not in you and you are not found in Christ. You need to repent. You need to turn from your sin. Look to Jesus Christ who's died on the cross for sinners, was buried and rose again, call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
And you'll be able to experience what people in this room have experienced a true joy that's found only in Jesus Christ. Lloyd-Jones put it this way. The only way to be happy in Christ is to be desperately unhappy without him.
And we were, but now no longer. We have experienced joy in Christ. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. As I finish, look to Christ, consider him, meditate upon him, his person, his work, his unending love for you, the piece of music.
What a friend we have in Jesus. His faithfulness to you all the days of your life. And you have no reason to believe he won't be faithful to you till death. His care for you in trying times. Reflect on his life, his death and resurrection, what he's purchased for you, pardon and peace and forgiveness.
Your circumstances can change, but Jesus never will. He always will be your God, your Lord, your good shepherd and the lover of your soul. So be cheerful in the Lord always. I'll just put that word there.
Be cheerful in the Lord always. And again, I say be cheerful. Have a calm sense of well-being and being well off in the Lord because of the Lord, because he is in you and you are found in him. Again, if you were standing in front of that rescue mission, how well would you fare?
What kind of words would you use? What would you tell him that the Lord has done in your life? If we poked you with the rejoice-o-meter, where do you stand today? How well are you doing in measuring up to the Word of God here?
And since we're found in Christ, brethren, let us be known as a people who rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.