Climbers No.3 Joy

Good morning, let us all stand. Let's come to the Lord in the words taught us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Father, we offer this service to you.

Pray that we might know the presence of our Lord Jesus through the empowering of his Spirit. And ask that as we come around to your word in a little while, that you will speak to our hearts. We pray for those who are away from us this day, and ask that the conference that delves down may be very beneficial.

We ask that as we look at the note of joy in praising you as our subject today, that we might feel something of the joy of the Lord being our strength. For his sake. Amen.

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken, but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, both now and for evermore. The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous.

For then the righteous might use their hands to do evil. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. But to those who turn to crooked ways, the Lord will banish with the evildoers.

Peace be upon Israel. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the streams in the Negev.

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. This is God's word.

Clap your hands, all you nations. Amen, hallelujah. Shout for joy, all you people.

Amen, hallelujah. Holy is the Most High. Amen, hallelujah.

Mighty over the earth. Amen, hallelujah. God subdues every nation.

Amen, hallelujah. God is king of all creatures. Amen, hallelujah.

God has given this land. Amen, hallelujah. To the people he loves.

Amen, hallelujah. To the shouting in triumph. Amen, hallelujah.

To the blasting of trumpets. Amen, hallelujah. God has gone up.

Amen, hallelujah. God ascends over all. Amen, hallelujah.

Praise the Lord with your singing. Amen, hallelujah. Sing our songs forever.

Amen, hallelujah. God is one at all. Amen, hallelujah.

Sovereign over the earth. Amen, hallelujah. I will sing about your love.

I will sanctify your name. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will praise you again.

Praise the Lord, lift your voices high. Praise the Lord, tell them he's alive. Praise the Lord, he's alive.

Praise the Lord. I will sing about your love. I will magnify your name.

I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will praise you again. Praise the Lord, lift your voices high.

Praise the Lord, tell them he's alive. Praise the Lord, he's alive. Praise the Lord.

Let's turn to those psalms, the psalms of ascent, the songs for climbers. I don't know how many of you were watching the last night of the proms. I do think that there you get a greater insight actually into the style of worship that was customary in the Old Testament when they came together for their great feast days, they did come and have a real ball.

I mean, they did have their instruments. There's a reference to the Hebrew Philharmonic Orchestra towards the end of the psalms. There were times, of course, when with great awe as the presence of God fell down in the temple area in Jerusalem, then all mouths would be stopped, but when they thought that is those pilgrims of what God had done for them down the centuries and his great faithfulness in every generation, then they blessed him.

As I said in my prayer, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. All my inmost being, bless the Lord. Well, this morning we're looking at Psalm 126 in particular, just taking a few of these psalms by way of example to show you just how rich the psalter, that is the book of psalms, is.

The psalter is like our own song supplement. Many of those songs are taken from scripture and adapted a little bit so that they'll fit in with the music. Well, the psalmists, they wrote these particular songs for Hebrew people on special occasions.

As I mentioned, we're really looking at the pilgrim songs as these folk from all over Palestine three times a year would make their way to Jerusalem in order to praise the Lord. If you were to distill this psalm to its essence, then you would discover that it is a psalm about joy. A joy recalled and a joy requested.

Not always, but sometimes in our children's songs, there is great wisdom. A little while ago, a couple of weeks to be precise, I was passing Westminster Abbey and then went up to Buckingham Palace. I'd been preaching just alongside the palace, around 500 yards to the west of the palace at the chapel.

My secretary had forgotten to let the Queen know that I was around, so I had to slum it at the Cumberland Hotel with a business friend of mine who footed the bill. Actually, it would have been no good if we'd put a call through to the palace because the Queen wasn't there. She and Philip had gone away for the weekend.

It wasn't that she actually told me, but there was no flag. And when there is no flag on the roof of Buckingham Palace, the indication is that the monarch is not present. Now, the children's chorus says this of joy.

Joy is the flag which flies high from the citadel of the soul when the king is in residence. Think that through. It really is quite profound.

Joy, the joy of the believer, is the flag that flies from your heart as an indication that the king is in residence. When I did a quick sweep of the Bible on my computer last night under the word joy, I discovered that it's found 218 times in both the New Testament and the Old Testament. 23 of those occurrences are in the Gospels.

And it's interesting, isn't it, that when you think of the advent of our Lord Jesus into the world, the word joy is used on so many occasions. His cousin John, when he is born, brings great joy to the heart of his parents. And when Mary visits cousin Elizabeth, both of whom are with child, a much better description of that condition than merely pregnant, Elizabeth says to Mary, the child that is within me leaps for joy.

A particular pronouncement that is interesting on two scores. One, it deals a savage blow to the abortionists. The child that is within me, the unborn babe, leaps for joy.

Because you, the mother of the master, is in my presence. When Jesus is announced in terms of his birth to the shepherds, we're told that they are informed of the great joy that there is in Bethlehem. And when our Lord goes about his public ministry, he says that one of the consequences of responding to his word is that you enter into joy.

The apostle Paul, when you move into the epistles, he will tell you in his definition of the kingdom of God, that the kingdom of God is not just meat and drink, it's not just having a party, though it can involve that, but it is joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, one of the things that makes me mad is an ill-thought-through evangelical position. I could give you an example of that in terms of some books that have come out in more recent days, which suggest that you can praise God for everything.

You know this lady who's born the Siamese twins. Now, it does seem as though she and her husband are responding splendidly to this challenge. But it's less than I could do as a pastor to say that they should be elated.

Sometimes, as a Christian person, you are to have joy in God when you cannot necessarily know joy from God. You know joy in the person of God when some of the circumstances that he allows don't bring joy. Now, here's Job.

You go to the sixth chapter of the book of Job, and you will find that this dear man is in so much pain, and yet he speaks about joy in unrelenting pain. And I've known that. I knew it yesterday.

I went to see one of our dear tabernacle ladies, who over the course of my period here has never had good health, and has known tremendous bouts of pain. First time yesterday I ever saw her cry, despite her reason so to do, on many, many visits. And yet despite the weeping, there was a joy.

A joy in God. A joy in God, even when there is no joy from God. Now, why do I say all these things? Well, you see, these psalms that were composed, they were there, of course, for the Old Testament Hebrews, but it's for the total church, the Old Testament church and the New Testament church.

And as these Hebrews sang when they went into the temple, so we sing when we go into our temple, into the church of Jesus Christ, an expression of which we have here this morning. And I want to try to crack open these verses for you, and to show that when I speak of joy, I'm not suggesting for a moment that you in every circumstance could be joyful, but in God and his person and his faithfulness to you, in that your heart can be warmed and you can rejoice. So the first three verses of my psalm open up conveniently.

A joy recalled. It's in the past tense, isn't it? When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. A joy recalled. You see, it hadn't always been like that.

I mean, the Hebrews had not always been in Jerusalem. There was decades when they were away from Jerusalem. If you go to a later psalm, it will tell you of their experiences then, in which far from joy there was crying.

Psalm 137. By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept. When we remembered Zion, there on the poplars we hung our harps.

How, for there our captors asked us for songs. Our tormentors demanded songs of joy. They said, sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. If I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

Now, you see, that was the sort of situation from which the psalmist in 1-2-6 is looking back, but with great experience of God releasing him, releasing his colleagues from Babylon. When the Lord brought us back, the captives, to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. A joy recalled.

It was a joy beyond expectation. Do you sometimes have to pinch yourself when something really nice happens? I remember a cartoon of an American pastor. It was from an American magazine, so I'm taking that it was an American pastor.

And he just ministered in a very small church. And in this cartoon there were a bevy of microphones. And there were thousands of people in a vast amphitheater.

And you could see the look on his face. Aren't the cartoonists brilliant sometimes as they can capture an experience? And as the guy is looking at this bevy of microphones in this vast, vast congregation, underneath is a caption, pinch me. Beyond expectation, the Lord brought back the captives to Zion.

We were like men who dreamed. He loved me. He gave himself for me.

Do you ever miss the sense of awe? The sense of wonder? I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Great God, I have to pinch myself. It's beyond my wildest dreams that in yonder manger is he who brought the stars and the planets and the world into existence.

And yet, this is God's gift to me. Thanks be unto the Lord for his unspeakable gift. It's more than I could ever have anticipated.

Beyond expectation, what God hath wrought. And because of this, it's beyond suppression. What I mean by that is that when these psalmists get back to, or when the people who are singing this psalm are back in the courts of Zion and looking around, they are so elated, you cannot suppress them.

Our mouths were filled with laughter. Our tongues were tongues of joy. You didn't have to whip them into an emotional frenzy.

That is always forbidden. The man who plays upon a congregation's emotions deliberately is not worthy of a pulpit. And the song leader who does the same is not worthy of offering worship to the Lord.

This was an unstoppable joy. You remember the story, I've told it on a number of occasions, but it really is a wonderful one, of Moshe. You come across Moshe in Richard Wernbrand's books.

Richard Wernbrand has written some wonderful, wonderful books. And this one is The Road to Jerusalem, certainly the one that he wrote on Israel. And he's got this character, Moshe, and he's in Romania.

And Moshe is a little bit, as my wife would say, tough and short of his shilling. And they don't like the fact that he's interrupting the church service so often, especially when the preacher speaks about Jesus. The tears will come down his cheeks, and he'll start to moan and groan.

And then when the preacher goes from the crucifixion to the resurrection, Moshe will get up and dance and shout his praise to the Lord. But Moshe's a poor man, and one of the Romanians says to Moshe, Look, if you keep quiet, you can come home and have a hot lunch with us. And Moshe is respectable in the service, and he listens to the gospel.

And then the wonder of the resurrection suddenly grips his heart. And Moshe stands up and dances and says, Roast beef or no roast beef, hallelujah! An irrepressible joy because of what God has done. These pilgrims of Zion felt it, expressed it.

How much more us who have lived to see an even greater demonstration of God's love. And what's more? You see, what has happened to them is so wonderful, it's beyond contention. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.

Who would have thought that poor old Israel, who's been scattered across the face of the earth, that they would be brought back to Jerusalem. And yet this has happened. Politically, militarily, there is no explanation whatsoever.

The heathen are driven to the conclusion that the Israelis are back in their own country because of what God has done for them. And are you not aware, my friend, that one of the benefits of the gospel, bringing glory to God, is when your life is so changed and the Christian community is so different. The Apostle Paul, when he's writing to the Romans, alas, he speaks negatively of Jewish testimony.

He says that the name of God is brought into disrepute because of the way that you're living. Now that is sad. But the inverse of that is what the psalmist here captures.

It's a joy recalled, a joy beyond expectation, a joy beyond suppression, a joy beyond contention. God has done great things. The Lord has done great things for us.

And we are filled with joy. Has the Lord done great things for you? A joy recalled, but then a joy requested. You see, it seems between the third verse and the fourth verse, the composer of the psalm has introduced a new theme.

Here are the Jews in a more difficult circumstance and they are trying somehow to boost their spirits. How do they do it? Well, when you are depressed, assuming it's not a clinical depression, how do you try and help yourself to adjust to your sadness? Well, nostalgia can be a good ploy to engage in. Reflection upon what things used to be like.

A remembrance of what God has done. You see, one of the most important things that we keep emphasizing from the pulpit here is that God has given you a brain and with that brain you are to think. And the grandest hymns that have been composed down the centuries for the benefit of the church are always those hymns that cause us to consider the goodness and the greatness of God.

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, and when I think that God his Son not sparing sent him to die, I scarce can take it in that on the cross my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. You think it through. This is what he's done.

All right, I'm in difficulty. All right, I've let him down. All right, I've had circumstances from God which he has allowed and I have no joy in those circumstances at all.

But when I look into the heart of God and think of the way that he has practically demonstrated his love to me, then I can continue. Now, my friends, this is so important for you to understand because the day will come when you're not in Worthing Tabernacle. If you're married, the day will come when you're not with your partner.

The day will come when you will be on your own as much as you were when you came into this world. But assuming the grace of God, you still have your mental faculties. What are you going to do then? You see, there's nobody else.

You're there on the bed on your own. What are you going to do? You're going to employ your mind. You're going to think of the great truths of scripture.

You're going to recall what you learned, what you imbibed. The lessons of yesterday will become beneficial for today. You see, you come in on your own and you go out on your own and you need to have thoughts of him and what he's done.

So, you see, you get this here with this little psalm. Restore our fortunes, O Lord. This is what we want.

We remember what it was like. You brought us out of Babylon. We were like men who dreamed.

We pinched ourselves. But Lord, now we're in difficulty. Restore our fortunes.

Do you sometimes watch the demonstrations in London? Used to have more when the unions had greater clout. What do you want? And then the answer would come and then the cheerleader. What do you want? Then the answer would come and so on and so forth.

Well, what do you want? What do you want, psalmist? What we want is the restoration of what was. We want our fortunes restored. Restored as a result of what? What you will do, what you have done, Lord, in Zion.

In the seventh verse of the 14th psalm, you get the messianic concept of God moving in Zion in a very wonderful way. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Now, there was an immediate fulfillment of that.

But the even greater fulfillment was when the Lord came to Zion. Do you remember how Ezekiel predicting the coming of the Messiah speaks of Jerusalem and a fountain that has its origination in that holy city? And the waters from the fountain, they go to the north, they go to the south, they go to the east, they go to the west. All the blessings of the earth is traceable back to Zion.

When was that fulfilled? When great David's greatest son went through those golden gates in Jerusalem. And after he had been received well by the crowd and the atmosphere turned unpleasant. And some week or so later, he's pinned to a cross.

On the third day, he's raised from the dead. Forty days later, he returns to heaven. And then he baptizes his infant church with the Holy Spirit.

You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses where? In Jerusalem, yes. In Judea.

In Samaria. The uttermost parts of the earth. A barren group of eleven true men.

The day of Pentecost, 120 men and women drenched with the power of the Holy Spirit. Made instruments of the Lord Jesus Christ. Promoting spiritual fertility around the world.

Now I say it's here. Restored our fortunes, oh God. Like streams in the Negev.

In the summer period, the Negev gets so dry. But when the rains come, then even the desert can be flooded with water. Which then cascades down and eventually is consumed in the Mediterranean Sea.

Our Lord, may we be like that. In other words, what he's asking for is revival. Lord, come upon your church.

Come upon these people, the Old Testament church. Lord, you did it yesteryear. You brought us back into Zion.

You made nations gape in astonishment. We even had to pinch our own skins. Lord, will you do that again? What we want, how do we get it? Well, look at verse 5. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.

I'm just a little concerned in certain areas of evangelicalism. That there is more that appertains to jubilation than what there is that denotes heartbreak and sorrow. Those who sow in tears.

One day I'd like to preach a sermon on the tears of the Apostle Paul. Have you ever thought of this cerebral man? I mean, he was a great intellect, wasn't he? Probably the greatest intellect, apart from our Savior, that the Jewish nation ever produced. And yet, when he's by the seashore of the Mediterranean, as he's taking his leave from the elders of Ephesus, he said, For three years I taught you with many tears.

With many tears I reminded you of the wolves that would come amongst the flock and try to destroy you. And then as he takes his leave from them, there are tears in the eyes of the Ephesian elders, as they realize, because Paul knows that he will never return then, that this side of eternity they will not have fellowship. And then when you find the Apostle writing to the Corinthians and writing to the Romans, time and time again he'll make reference to his tears.

I preached to you, I taught you, and now I write to you with tears in my eyes. For he has a concern for their spiritual well-being. Those who sow in tears.

Do you ever weep for the state of the church? Do you ever weep for your own individual crass immaturity? I'm not against praise. Not against the jolly songs I'll clap my hands off with the others. But there's a flip side.

I want Zion restored. The people of God to be the unstoppable force in this world. I want God to be glorified through his church.

How is this going to be when men and women are reduced to tears? When they come before the Lord and repent of their sins. And repent of the ineffectual power of the church in these days. And ask that God in his grace will move mightily upon us.

Those who will sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. How to obtain it? You say you've asked the question. Yes, but I've got to put it again because there's a sort of repeat answer given in the sixth verse.

How to obtain it? He who goes out weeping carrying seed to sow. Don't you think that's a picture of our beloved Lord Jesus? At least it's definitive of his ministry. How do you see the Nazarene? You know he put up the parable of the sower.

Gratuitously, freely, indiscriminately. He takes the seed and he throws it on one hand and he throws it on the other hand. And that's what our Lord was doing.

He starts off in Galilee. He makes his way south. He comes back to Galilee.

He makes his way south. And then he goes south for the third occasion. But during the whole of those months, 36 months, what is he doing? He's throwing out the seed.

Indiscriminately. Intelligently. But not unemotionally.

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How oft would I have gathered you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks but you would not. Here's the Christ of God and Lazarus is dead.

And Jesus realizes again the consequence of Adam's sin. And the beloved Savior weeps. He goes out weeping.

Carrying seed to sow. But at the end of his ministry, Golgotha in the past historically. The resurrection in the past historically.

He's now taken up to heaven. He's there by the Father's right hand. There is given to him a name that is above every name.

And when the Father asks the Son what he has done. He says the work that you gave to me to accomplish has been achieved. I've sowed the seed and I have so watered the seed by my blood.

That there is a possibility, nay a certainty of a remarkable harvest. Not only this century but down the centuries. He went out weeping.

Carrying seed to sow. He returned to heaven with songs of joy. Carrying precious sheaves with him.

And it's because of the joy of Jesus that we can enter into joy. Oh joy that seeketh me through pain. Aye some of you know it don't you? You lost your loved one.

Some of you have known your life collapse. Some of you have known that perpetual youth was impossible. The body that you now have is only a shadow of what it was.

But the joy is there. In the pain. The joy is there.

In the deprivation. Worm brand is in his cell. And it's full of rats.

And the presence of God comes. And Richard Worm Brand one of the greatest men ever to be in this pulpit wrote. He danced for joy.

That's what I mean. Joy. Even in unrelenting pain.

A joy built not just on emotion. Though it alerts the emotions. A joy built on what God has done.

A joy recalled. A joy requested. May God grant you.

A baptism. Of such joy. Let's sing.

We sing about Zion. For to Zion we are destined. We will be one day in the immediate presence of our Lord.

And then at the right moment. He and the redeemed community of the church in heaven will return to this world. And this world will be returned back to its original pristine glory.

And made even more wonderful. And it's of this that John Newton causes us to sing. In that great hymn glorious things of thee are spoken.

Zion city of our God. In the third verse he puts in a supposition, a condition. Savior if of Zion city.

Now this isn't Newton without any assurance. He has assurance but he's allowing other people to sing. And he's very concerned that they sing intelligently.

You can only get the benefit of this song which I'm told is the favorite hymn of Prince Charles. I hope he reads it very often. You can only get the benefit.

If you have entered into a faith relationship with this God. If you know. That Zion is your destination.

Because the passport is stamped. With the shed blood. Of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters let's sing this enthusiastically. One, seven, three. O'er the gulf.

Of the rock. Of ancient London. O'er the great sea.

The shore it o'ers. It's the nations. Roads surrounded.

And it's my land. All I know. See the streams.

Of living waters. Streaming from. Eternal love.

Help supply. Thy sons and daughters. And all here.

Of what renew. New and faithful. Such a river.

Ever flows. Let us to say. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. Please be seated and let us pray.

Father, we come again before Your Holy Throne. We are not mindless people. We thank You for the great joy that so many here have.

The joy in You. when we cannot always rejoice in what comes from you. Lord, bless this world of ours, with all its trouble, with all its difficulty.

We think again of the Croatian and the Serbian problem. Lord, grant peace in our time. We think of the deprivation in Rwanda, and the genocidal activities of one race over against another.

We bring to you the poor and the underprivileged in our world, as we've been reminded so many. Lord, hear as we pray, as we ask you to speed the day for the return of Jesus Christ. Hear us for your ancient people, and may their eyes behold the truth of Scripture.

Hear us, Lord, for our own families. Hear us for heartbreaking situations. Hear us, O Lord, for the Church, for this Church here, and for all its manifold activities.

Own us, own it, for your honour and for your glory. Be with beloved members who are battling for life. Grant them a blanket of your peace, and a knowledge either way, they're on the winning side.

Give joy in unrelenting pain. Send us on our way from this place to see you more clearly, to love you more dearly, to follow you more nearly all our lives. And all God's people thoughtfully said, Amen.

And with joy in our hearts we shout, Hallelujah.