Joy

John chapter 15. Now we shall read at verse number 11. John 15 verse 11.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Hebrews chapter 12. Listen to the Hebrews in chapter 12.

Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight on the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame that is set down at the right hand of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. That is our reading, and with the Lord's blessing.

That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Those that were weary and faint in their minds, to which the Hebrew writer is addressing, he says, consider him who for the joy that was set before him. I want to speak to you for a few moments about joy.

Joy. You know, amongst us, if there is one grace that is lacking, it is joy, and there is no excuse for it. As you think of what God has done for us, the blessing of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the redemption that is in Christ, baptized and gathered to his blessed name, and preserved, saved by the grace of God, preserved in a little day of service, and soon to be with Christ and to be rewarded in any matter in which we serve him.

But you know, isn't there a lack of joy? Grace of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. You remember the people of a former day, redeemed from out of Egypt, destroyed Pharaoh, brought them through the Red Sea, put a song in their heart and rejoicing on their lips. What do they do? They'll be like us, who are an older generation, grumbling, complaining, want to change the oversight, go back to Egypt.

Their murmurings and complainings lost their joy. Maybe a younger generation today, and those solid, scriptural, sound, spiritual joy is giving way to happenings and happiness. You know, joy is not happiness.

The word happiness comes readily to lips, but happiness really depends upon happenings. And we're so much dependent upon the emotional, the dramatic, the entertaining, and the thing that is about us. Listen to your Bible.

We've thought about the example of the Lord here for the joy that was set before them. As Paul says, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Says Peter, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

John writes in his epistles, and he says, I write these things that your joy might be full. Says somebody, well, that man doesn't know much about my burdens and cares and difficulties and trials. Well, said the Savior, when they revile you, and when they persecute you, and when they speak all evil against you, he says, rejoice in that day and leap for joy.

You see, joy is not dependent upon circumstances, not dependent upon congenial outward circumstances. The book of the Philippians, Paul's in prison, there's a jangling of the chain. And there he is, as far as outward preaching and his journeying is finished.

Paul says, Paul, rejoice in the Lord again, and I say again, rejoice. To the Thessalonians with their sorrows and their difficulties and their bereavements, he says, rejoice evermore. It's not joy through joy, solid joy and lasting pleasure, none but Zion's children know, not dependent upon happenings and congenial circumstances.

I remember once in the northern region of Siberian Russia, huddling a little diary. It was given to me by a dear man who had been for the sake of Christ and the testimony been in prison. And with another man in those conditions, those conditions of a Soviet prison camp, treated like animals, fed in sub-zero temperatures on a metal plate, and made to work extremely hard, beaten by the guards and by fellow prisoners, just in prison because of preaching Christ and possessing a few pages of a Bible.

And that little diary was kept in secret by a brother who had lost his life, really beaten to death, in a prison camp. And they pointed out one of the last entries in his little diary was Psalm 16, verse 6. The lanes have fallen onto us in pleasant places. We have a goodly heritage.

The man had joy in the most awful conditions. This world, you know, looks for better conditions, better pay, better salary, better houses, and all they are is more materialistically unhappy and sad. Many assemblies, the reasoning is, well, nothing for the young.

We need to cheer up the thing, get it a bit more lively. We'll have the Bible, but we'll have the ball game. You know, there's a dear lady who lives beside me, and she was telling me about a million, well, in our currency, a million pound extension to the church.

They had an ornate church with a spire on it, and that was keeping them happy on Sunday and pointing them toward heaven. But they wanted another place where they play ball games and keep them happy on earth during the week. That's not what we're at.

Not dependent upon congenial outward circumstances. True joy is not a natural, cheerful condition, not a jovial disposition. Some people are of an optimistic outlook.

This is not a Colgate smile. This is not just a buoyant attitude, couldn't care less. This is not just a natural cheeriness.

We read from John 15, the context is the upper room, that about to leave the upper room, out into the garden, across the brook and onward to Calvary's cross. Soon he'll be hanging up as upon a cross. What is his joy? My joy.

He speaks of my disciples, my friends, my love, my glory, that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be filled. He says in chapter 17, at the conclusion of the upper room ministry, that they might behold my glory, that my joy might be filled in themselves. My dear brother, my dear sister, at whatever stage in life there is more joy, solid joy, with five minutes around your Bible, saved by the grace of God and finding delight in Christ, compared with a lifetime in the tinsel and dissatisfaction and so-called happiness of the world.

The world and its partying, its glitter, its neon lights, its laughter, its fashion, its rush. Oh yes, they need to be always partying to have joy. That's not it.

You see, true joy in the Bible sense is dependent upon the deep spiritual condition. Galatians 5, 22, fruit of the spirit, nine features of the fruit of the spirit, one beautiful cluster, and the basic is love, joy, peace. Did you ever hear fruit growing? Go to an orchard and the apples are growing, but no noise.

Fruit doesn't make noise. Growth in the spiritual sense is not that noisy thing. We live in days when there are those who say, well, make the meetings lively.

Make the, you know, that hoppy, choppy sort of thing. The meetings are stuffy. They're dead.

That assembly, old gray-haired men and their Bibles and, well, sort of a geriatric generation will go somewhere else where they have nice music, three-end choirs, some sort of amateur dramatics, a kind of swelling oratory. Says the Bible, carnal weapons. Says the Bible, enticing works.

In the Old Testament, they had robed priests. They had singing choirs. They had musical instruments.

They had incense and animal sacrifices. And it was all external, formal, repetitive. The assembly, the exercises of the assembly are all spiritual.

Are you clear about that? All spiritual. But I do observe on our day, especially in young people's meetings and Sunday schools and youth conferences and so on, there's things that are being introduced and they're just about as old as ram bullocks and horns and all harps of the past. We're not talking about that emotional happiness and that which is stirred of the emotions and the outward atmosphere.

Create an atmosphere of music and so on. Did you notice this? There are 28 chapters in the book of Acts. Paul wrote 14 epistles.

John wrote three epistles. Peter wrote two epistles. John and James and Jude wrote one epistle.

22 communications. Six authors. Over 70 years.

And there's not one indication of instrumental music. There is every indication in the presence of God and in the gathering of the saints of quiet meditation, of spiritual exercise. I can see in my Bible the solemn pleadings of spirit filled preaching of the gospel.

A few months ago I had to go to a funeral. It was in a place where maybe two generations ago was an assembly. Good man probably, isn't it? I never really felt free to go to it.

Had to go to this funeral. And the seating accommodation in the lower hall was a big, big, big accommodation. The seating accommodation was taken up rightly by the relatives and the nearer friends.

There wasn't much seating in the bottom of the hall. We were put into a room above and the whole proceedings were related to us on a screen. But I did observe afterwards that the bulk of the area in the main hall, the floor space was taken up nearly a third of it at least, was the accoutrements of an orchestra.

And all the instrumental music. How would we go about this thing of stirring up the atmosphere of a thing? What would we introduce? What would we bring along that would stir it up and create a better atmosphere? Would it be the clatter of the saxophone? Would it be the strumming of a guitar? Would it be the plate of wheel of a violin? Would we have the blare of a trumpet? Now, a piano and an organ is all right in the circle of the home. I observe in my Bible, singing and making melody unto the Lord in the heart.

Singing is good, singing. I ask, but my dear brother, my dear sister, the only organ that we need for the singing is the heart. We don't need to make a theater of the church.

We don't need the thrill, noise of the sensual. That's not joy. No, no, no.

John Wesley, you know, gave us a lot of those good hymns we sing. John Wesley said, music as a science I esteem and admire, but in the house of God I abhor as an abomination. John Calvin, he said, in the house of God there is more place for incense on the lighting of the lamps than there is for instrumental music.

C. H. Spurgeon preached in his metropolitan tabernacle in the city of London to thousands, thousands of people, but he had no, he had no instrumental music as he preached to the thousands. My dear brother, my dear sister, an older generation, they left those systems of vestments and sacraments and prayer books and organs and choirs. That's not introducing anything new.

It's just there's nothing new under the sun, said the wise man. It's just going back to what those that came out of it regarded as the last and vilest manifestation of potpourri. Oh yes, joy, my joy, my joy might be full, that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full, who for the joy that was set before him.

What in the Bible is through joy? The Bible talks about joy in God. Did you notice the sequence of Romans chapter 5? Romans 5 and 1, therefore being justified by faith. Mind you, I tell you that's joy.

Justified by faith, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, God commandeth us, love toward us, ah yes, and further down. The sequence is justified, reconciled.

Verse 11 of Romans 5 says, we joy in God. We joy in God. What about joy with the people of God? Psalm 16, from the present of the earth, in who I find all my delight.

Good to be at the conference. I know that when it's all over, all the talk about how the preachers got on. You know, it's good to be even amongst the people of God.

Before I was saved, you know, I watched the people of God along for a day when the barrier of my sin would be gone and I would just be able to be in amongst the excellent of the earth. How good it is in this old world as he looks down, ah yes, in the day of his rejection when they blaspheme his holy name. To be numbered a little company, gathered we long to see more, we're thankful for a good number.

Ah yes, but gathered together, our one focus is in the person of Christ and to have joy with the people of God. What about joy in the word of God? Psalm 119, again and again. Is it about, verse 162, rejoice in thy word as having great spoil.

My young brother, do you know what it is to feed your soul upon the word of God? There's a shallowness amongst us today. Do you know what it is to get into the presence of God? Now I know you get up when you pray and maybe read a passage and then at the end of the day you pray again and maybe read a passage. I'm not talking about that, that's good, that's really good.

But do you know spending hours and hours? Sure you couldn't spend too long. Is it the priority? Is it the bent of your life? Is it the thing you long to do to get along with God? Get along with your savior? Get along and find spoil from the study of the word of God. Find fresh delights in Christ.

Joy in the assembly. We've been hearing about that. Do you find joy in Bethel, the house of God? We've been hearing it.

The relatives and some of the family of Jacob mightn't have understood him. But I tell you, Jacob was one of those men. He was a bit patsy along the way but he had a good finish.

Ah yes, happy was the man when he got back to Bethel, that little assembly, the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth. What about joy in the obedience to the word of God? All right, studying its doctrines and knowing its structure. I know you maybe put it up in a text on the wall, Nehemiah 8 and 10.

The joy of the Lord is your strength. Ever notice the context of that text? The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah chapter 8 says, the people of God in a day of departure there were the faithful remnant and they read the book and they built the walls.

I ask the joy of separation, the joy of separation. They built the walls, not bridges, walls. They built walls and we are afraid of it.

There's something, dear brother, dear sister, about the child of God walking in the deportment of their life, ordering the household as we've heard already, gathered to the Lord's name and maintaining, ah yes, maintaining that separation as gathered to his peerless name, anointing his atoning work and delighting in his person. Ah yes, if you enjoy those things, you'll be able to say the joy of the Lord is your strength. Joy in God, joy in the word of God, joy and obedience to the word of God, joy with the people of God.

Joy is faith, not feeling. I know we have trials and difficulties. Romans 15 says, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

That joy can be disturbed by sin in the life. Said the psalmist, we've been thinking about David already this morning, said the psalmist, rejoice unto me, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Would you have come to the conference today? And really, honestly, you're not reading the scriptures as you should, not wholly occupied with Christ and enjoying him in the way that you would like.

Maybe you come to the meetings and you sit a kind of miserable and there's no amen. I haven't heard an amen from me brother for years and there's not. Oh yes, do we need, my dear younger Christian, do we need amusement? The tinsel and the noise and the PowerPoints and the entertainment and the sausage sizzle and the pea soup supper and the daffodil teas and all the rest.

Ah, solid joys and lasting pleasure, none but Zion's children. Oh, I'm glad to see an assent or two across the audience of those that have come to the conference today to have a fresh look at Christ. What's he say? That my joy might remain in you.

He's about to go out to the cross and what's the burden of his heart but your joy. I know you have trials and difficulties. That my joy might remain with you.

He's preparing them for the period of his absence when the disciples will no longer see him. They were distressed. He said he's leaving them.

Thomas says where? Peter says how? And Philip, you know the five questions they ask. Who's going to lead? Who's going to make the decision? He's been with them now over three years. Who's going to be leading? Oh yes, he's going back to the Father, the many mansions, a comforter up there, a comforter that will come.

They're of nothing. They're deficient of nothing. He leaves them with his word.

He leaves them with his promises. He leaves them with his joy. Hebrews 12, looking onto Jesus.

Comes in after chapter 11. After the example of the faithful looking off, looking away from anything else, looking with eyes fixed onto Jesus. The author, the inspirer, the fight leader, the consummator, the completer, the vindicator, the vindicated Christ of God's right hand.

Take a look at him today, dear saint. The author of faith who in view of the joy sat before him and endured the cross, the awful intensity of suffering and sorrow. Nobody ever suffered like him.

Stood at the bedside of a dear brother away in northern Russia some time ago. Last place you want to be is in a hospital up there. They would have given him a transfusion of the wrong type of blood.

He'd been in rigors all night in agony. They said, you're suffering, brother. He says, you know what I was thinking? Nobody ever suffered like him.

Nobody. Yes, he endured the cross. He despised the shame.

And for the fourth time, the writer to Hebrews says he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The encouragement to Hebrew believers who for the joy what was set before him. As he went out to the cross, did you ever think of those things that filled his mind that brought him joy? He entered the setting to the song of a praising people.

Hosanna in the highest. Soon they were to reject him, but for him a sweet fortieth of that day. Ah yes, that day when he shall be the leader of the praise in the great congregation.

That last meal in the upper room. As he instituted the feast and the bread and the wine, what was he thinking about? I will drink it new with you in the kingdom. The joy of the kingdom was before him.

Those days before the cross, the joy before the cross, the joy set before him. For those days from the 10th to the 14th day, he lingered in the court of the temple and in the evening went out to Bethlehem. For those four days from the 10th to the 14th, the joy of knowing what it was in the purpose of God that through Paschal Ham without blemish, without spot.

As he was kneeled in the cross, he had the joy of seeing a man saved. A man that wasn't fit to live on earth. But he said that, we indeed justly.

What did the Savior tell him about? The Savior told him about paradise, and he said it'll be today. That sweet fortieth of the song above, that sweet fortieth and joy of the kingdom that was coming, that sweet fortieth of knowing that he had accomplished the Father's will, that he had fulfilled the Father's word. I asked her, he went out to the cross, he said, I finished the work that thou gavest me to do.

Dear brother, dear sister, you've come to the conference in Blue River today. Don't be murmuring and complaining and thinking of going back to Egypt. I ask you to behold Christ to yourself.

In light of that day, saved by the grace of God, taught the truth of the Bible, the happiness of sins forgiven, the happiness of obedience, gathered to the Lord's name, the house of battle and the place of God, that you may know joy in your heart and joy in the family and joy in the household and joy in the things of God. And in light of that day, says Jude, when he shall present you, faultless, with exceeding joy, and even now the fulfillment of his prayer and his desire, that my joy might remain with you and remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Anticipation of that day, that blessed day, he and I together entering those bright courts above, he and I together sharing all the Father's love, the infinite joy that he has now in his people.

And in that day, in the glory, one deep joy shall share, mine to be forever with him, his that I am there, that my joy might be fulfilled in you. May God bless his word.