Joy to the World! - Part 3
Tom Pennington • Selected Scriptures
- 2023-12-17 am
- Sermons
- Christmas Sermons
Well, we are stepping away from our study of the Book of Revelation for these few weeks to consider the birth of Christ. In the incarnation, in the reality that the eternal Son of God was incarnated in human flesh, we're reminded that Jesus came to bring joy to the world. On the night of His birth, the angels made that clear to the shepherds – in Luke 2, "the angel said, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people.'"[SR1] Jesus came to bring the truth of the gospel, and for all who will receive it, it brings great joy – why? "For today, in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."[SR2] Because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Christmastime, our lives as His followers should be marked with unending, indestructible joy. As we prepare to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends, we're considering what it means that Jesus brought joy to the world.
We begin by considering the ultimate source of joy – where does joy come from? Scripture teaches that God Himself is characterized by indestructible joy, and His joy came to us on this planet in the incarnation of His Son. Jesus came so that sinners like us can be saved from our sins and experience real, true, everlasting joy – and then, He came so that, as believers, as His people, we can share His own joy not only in eternity but, remarkably, even during our lives here in this broken world.
So, last week, we began to consider the believer's life of joy – we began by looking at the certainty of the believer's joy; it's certain. The true believer's joy begins when we receive the gospel message – when we hear and understand the truth of the gospel, our hearts are flooded with joy. For some of you, you know exactly when and where that happened; for others of you, it was a process over time; you're not sure exactly when you came to faith, but be assured of this, when you understood the gospel and when you were certain that you had believed that gospel, your heart was filled with joy. And the true believer's joy will continue throughout this life, because it's characteristic of believers to have joy because of the fruit of the Spirit – where the Spirit indwells, He produces fruit, and that fruit is joy.
We looked at some categories of a believer's joy – and I won't rehearse all of those with you, but just look at the last two of those. We have joy in all the circumstances of this life, and even in all of our difficulties and trials – and those two set the stage for where we want to go today. We ended last time by looking at the cause of a believer's joy – where does joy come from in our lives? And I sort of layered and unfolded in a series for you where that joy comes from, the cause of joy – joy is found in God, and our joy is a gift of God; God gives us joy. And, as it turns out, in John 15 we discover that our joy is Christ's own joy – He says, "I want My joy to be in them, and I want their joy to be full,"[SR3] and Christ's joy becomes ours through the work of the Holy Spirit. But number five in our little list of the causes of a believer's joy is the most important, and that is, Christ's joy becomes ours by believing God's word – that's how joy comes to fruition in our lives.
That was last week – now, today, I want us to begin by considering the course of a believer's joy – what is the progression of joy in the heart of a believer? How does it begin, how is it continued, and where does it direct us – what is the course of the believer's joy? Well, first of all, let me just say that when our circumstances are good, or even if they aren't good, but it's something we wanted or desired, it normally produces joy, right? I mean, even good circumstances for unbelievers produce joy, as we saw in Acts 14 – even unbelievers have joy when God gives them bountiful harvests and plenty; that produces joy. Of course, that's not universally true; many struggle with joy even in the best of circumstances. Perhaps you are in good circumstances and yet you struggle with joy; why is that? Well, let me begin by just reminding you that we're two-part beings; there's a material and immaterial part, we’re body and soul, and our problems can arise from either of those components, or frankly, most often from a combination of both. Often, there are physical issues that are behind an absence of joy – for example, many who are discouraged or depressed, even in the best of circumstances, have been affected by things like recreational drugs or alcohol, or a lack of sleep often robs people of joy. Certain prescriptions or even supplements we add for our general health, we think, can rob us of joy – or physical diseases, like Alzheimer's, can ultimately rob a person of joy. So, there can be physical issues that contribute to a lack of joy – but the absence of joy, even in favorable circumstances, often comes from spiritual struggles with sins like discontentment, a complaining spirit, a lack of gratitude. The believer demonstrates biblical, Spirit-enabled joy when he has the best of circumstances, when his circumstances are favorable, when he or she receives those circumstances with a humble, grateful heart from the Lord. When you know that the good you have is from God, and you have a humble heart that doesn't demand it of God, and you're grateful for that, then you will experience joy in those good circumstances.
But what's the course of a believer's joy when troubles and trials come? That's a lot harder, right? I mean, it's relatively easy, even human, to be joyful when circumstances are good. Where, and how, can we find joy when life is hard? Having joy in our trials and troubles must begin with joyful acceptance. Joyful acceptance – joy begins when we acknowledge the trial or the difficulty in our lives, and we joyfully accept them as from a good and wise heavenly Father. If something comes into your life, a trial begins, a difficulty – or perhaps you've been in the trial, but you've not experienced joy. Joy in that trial starts with joyful acceptance; you have to say, God, I know You're good, I know You're wise, and I accept this from Your hand, and I want to do so joyfully in a way that honors You – that's how joy begins in the midst of trials. Hebrews 10:34, the writer of Hebrews, writing to the Christians who were beginning to experience persecution, says "you joyfully accepted the seizure of your property." "You joyfully accepted the seizure of your property" – how? Well, he goes on, "knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." There, we have the first clue to how to joyfully accept trials in your life – it only happens when you know and accept that that trial is from God, and you begin to think about that trial from God's perspective; that's the only way you can have joy in the midst of trials.
But this is fleshed out a little more in a couple of passages – turn with me to Romans 5; this is a key passage. In fact, keep your finger in this passage, we'll come back to it several times this morning, Romans 5. Paul begins in verse 1 with the immediate benefits of justification – because we have been declared right with God, verse 1, "Therefore, having been justified by faith," and then he begins to list a series of immediate benefits that come from that justification. Verse 3 initiates a surprising one – he says, "And not only this, but" because of our justification, "we also exult in our tribulations." "We also exult in our tribulations" – now, the word tribulation literally means pressure. In fact, the word was used in secular Greek to describe the pressure of a threshing sledge – it was basically a wooden sled; they would put rocks on the top of it, and they would drag that heavy sled across the wheat to separate the chaff and the grain – and the pressure of that sledge is this word, pressure. And so, this word is used here to describe all of the external pressures that press down on us in this life, whatever they are – any circumstance that squeezes, that pressures us, that crushes us – we are to exult in. The word exult means to rejoice; we rejoice in all of the circumstances that bring pressure into our lives, that crush us, that squeeze us. Now, that doesn't mean we're happy when trouble comes – we're not masochists; I mean, Hebrews 12:11 acknowledges, "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness." That's what Paul means – although our initial reaction to tribulation, to trials of all kinds, is grief, we eventually come to rejoice in them because God uses them to sanctify us and to prepare us for heaven. We're not supposed to like trials, we're supposed to rejoice in them.
Now, keep your finger there – turn over to James, the other important passage on this issue, James 1. As James, the half-brother of our Lord, begins his letter, "To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad," the Jewish believers who had been dispersed through persecution in Jerusalem, he says to them, verse 2, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." "Consider it" – the Greek word translated consider means to count or to regard as; it means to come to a conclusion after considering the facts. This reminds us that we have to make a deliberate choice to consider the various trials that we encounter to be joy. Notice he says "all joy" – that doesn't mean consider it exclusively joy, that your only emotional response to trials must be joy; I mean, even our Lord's heart was grieved with the sickness, pain and death of those he loved. So, James doesn't say, when trials and difficulties come into your life, you should feel only joy, or that you should enjoy your trials, or that trials are all joy; that is, they're all good – can I just share with you, and I hope I don't rain on anybody's parade too much here this morning, but can I just share with you a pet peeve of mine? It bothers me theologically when troubles come into a Christian's life and others are talking to them about those troubles, and a well-intentioned believer says, it's okay, it's all good. It's not all good – we live in a world that's broken, we live in a world that's cursed, and many of the things that happen in our world are a result of the curse. Think about death – it's the last enemy to be destroyed! It's not all good – but God is all good, and He can bring good out of even the terrible things that are in this world. We should joyfully accept the trials God brings because we understand that He will use them to produce wonderful results in us. If you're going to have joy in the midst of the troubles of this life – and oh, by the way, John 16:33 says that "in this world you will have tribulation;" that's just life in a broken world, a fallen world, you're going to have tribulation – so, if you're going to have joy in the midst of your tribulation, if you're going to have joy in this life, we could even say, it begins with joyful acceptance, there has to come a point in time when, like those to whom the writer of Hebrews wrote, you joyfully accept what God has brought into your life.
But for joy to continue, we must also have joyful endurance. Joyful endurance – if you’re still in James, look again at what he writes here in verse 3. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”[SR4] Endurance – now, keep that word in mind, and we’ll come back to James, but go back to Romans 5. I told you we’d be back and forth here. Romans 5 – he says, “We exult or rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance.”[SR5] Now, the Greek word behind perseverance and behind endurance in James 1 is exactly the same Greek word – the Greek word is hupomone. Hupomone – two Greek words; it means, literally, to remain under. To remain under – the picture is like an Olympic weightlifter; you know, with the Olympics coming up this summer, and you watch those massive men go to that huge bar that’s overladen with weight, and they grab that bar, and they yank it up to their chests and push it above their head. For it to be a legal lift, they have to remain under that weight for a specified period of time – and, for those few seconds, their whole body is shaking, but they are remaining under – that’s this word. It’s not the escape from your trials, it’s the capacity to remain under them, to hold them. In fact, Romans 12:12 says that when it comes to the troubles in life, we are to “persevere in tribulation,” the same word; we’re to respond to our difficult circumstances by persevering. This isn’t passively accepting what I know I can’t change, in some fatalistic sense – rather, it is remaining under the trial, confidently and joyfully waiting for God to intervene in His time.
It’s interesting that right after the author of Hebrews says that his readers “joyfully accepted the seizure of their property,”[SR6] two verses later, he writes this, “You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.”[SR7] You started well, you joyfully accepted the trial – you need to joyfully endure that trial. And, of course, our Lord is a perfect example of this – turn to Hebrews 12. You remember, of course, chapter 11 is the “Hall of Faith” that describes the faith of many believers and the race that each of them was called to run, the race of faith that was unique for each of them – not the same, different races, but all run in faith – and, therefore, in chapter 12, verse 1, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” By the way, that doesn’t mean that the believers who died before us are looking over heaven, cheering us on, and watching what goes on in this world, there’s nothing in scripture that indicates that. Rather, this is simply saying, look at all of those who can testify to what faith does in allowing you to run your race – there’s a whole bunch of them, there’s a list of them; they’re witnesses to this reality. So, therefore, verse 1, “let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Your race isn’t the same as Abraham’s or Moses’s or mine; you have your own race the Lord set before you – run that race with endurance; do it joyfully. And, again, look at verse 2, our Lord is the perfect example, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.” The picture here is of a marathon – you can’t just start a marathon well; you can’t just start a trial well – you have to run with endurance, you have to keep that joy and run. Why? Because of the prize – Jesus did it; He was able to run with endurance the race that God set before Him, because he did it with considering the joy that was set before Him. What was that joy? We’ve talked about it, the joy of bringing glory to the Father, the joy of having a redeemed people – He did it for us; that was the joy set before Him, and He ran His race in spite of its difficulty. He “endured the cross, despising the shame, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” So, we need to do the same – verse 3, “Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Keep on running – endure! So, if you’re going to have joy in this life, you have to start by accepting joyfully the trials God brings, and then you have to keep on running mile after mile with endurance.
How can we do that? Well, it’s hard! It’s hard, because we often begin trials like Job did, in Job 1:21 – something happens, and this is what Job said when his whole life caved in on him; and sometimes when our trials come, we can start well like he did. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” But, sadly, as time passes, and the trial doesn’t – unlike Job, we can fail to joyfully endure. The course of joy in hard times begins with joyful acceptance, and it continues with joyful endurance – but how? How can we run our race with joyful endurance – how can you run the marathon God has put before you with joy? Well, it’s because of joyful confidence. Joyful confidence, or expectation – be glad, be happy because of your joyful expectation and confidence of future good! What is the primary focus of our hope in the Christian life? I think it’s in Romans 5:2 – here it is, “we exult in hope of the glory of God.” We rejoice in our hope, and what is our hope? The glory of God – what does he mean? Someday, Christian, you will see with your own eyes, face to face, the glory of God. It’s what theologians call the beatific vision – can you imagine what it will be like to see God in all His glory? That will be the most soul-refreshing, drenching joy you’ve ever experienced or ever will. And we will not only see the glory of God, we will share the glory of God – you will one day be just like Jesus Christ; your body will be like His glorified body, and your character will be just like His own perfect character. That’s our hope, and that produces joy, regardless of what you’re facing now. You see, it’s back to the marathon – how does a marathon runner run with endurance for twenty-six miles; how does he do that? He does it because he keeps his eye on the finish line, he sees the joy of finishing the race, perhaps of winning the race! He sees the reputation that will increase as he uses his skills and accomplishes this great endeavor. The same is true for us as believers – Hebrews 10:34, you have “joyfully accepted the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.” He’s looking at the finish line. James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown which is life,” eternal life, “which the Lord has promised for those who love Him.” There’s a finish line worth running for, there’s a joy to run for. 1 Peter 4:13 says, “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”
So, there’s the course of the believer’s joy – it begins with joyful acceptance; you have to accept the trial God brought, knowing it’s from His hand; it continues with joyful endurance, and how do you joyfully endure as the trial doesn’t go away? You keep your eye on the finish line, you keep your eyes on the prize that’s there before you – like Jesus, you set your eyes on the joy that’s set before you, the joy of seeing God, of sharing His glory, of being reunited with family and friends, of hearing the Lord’s “well done.” That’s the course of the believer’s joy.
But how can you and I manifest that kind of joy, practically – how can you and I build joy into our lives? That brings us to the cultivation of a believer’s joy. You see, biblical joy is not an automatic emotional reaction; it has to be cultivated. As we already saw, the Holy Spirit produces joy in us, but listen – He doesn’t just miraculously produce it; He doesn’t zap us, and we wake up the next morning with joy. Think of it this way – joy is not a trait that some are born with, it’s a discipline we have to develop. Or think of it like this – joy is not a pill you take, it’s a muscle you develop. Joy is not an indicative of what has happened to you; joy is an imperative that you must put on – joy is a command. So, He doesn’t just zap us – the Holy Spirit uses means, and the means the Holy Spirit uses is His own word; the Holy Spirit produces joy in us by enabling us to understand, apply and obey the word of God – that’s where joy comes from. Turn back to John 15 – I told you we’d come back here – John 15; I love this passage, it’s in the upper room discourse, our Lord is, the night before His crucifixion, and He shares that picture of His being the vine and us as the branches. And He says, verse 2, “Every true branch, the Father prunes it so that it will bear more fruit.” How does that happen? Verse 3, “You are already pruned,” same word, “you are already pruned” – how are you pruned? “Because of the word which I have spoken to you.” He comes back to this issue of the word again and again – look at verse 7. “If you abide in Me,” that is, if you continue to believe in Me, like we saw in 1 John, just keep on believing in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel, “and you let My words,” here it is again, “abide in you,” then your prayers will be successful. He comes back to this issue of the word in verse 10, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Now, watch verse 11 – “These things,” these things about the priority of the word in the believers’ lives, “these things I have spoken to you,” here it is, “so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Joy is the fruit of knowing and obeying God’s word. By the way, He says the same thing in John 17:13 in the high priestly prayer – He says, “The things I have spoken in the world,” His word, “I have spoken so that My joy may be in them, and their joy may be full.”
Now, before we consider how to cultivate true biblical joy, let’s first make sure that we understand what real biblical joy is not – a lot of confusion. So, first of all, biblical joy is not human joy – it isn’t present only in favorable circumstances; that’s just normal human joy, this is not the biblical joy we’re talking about. Secondly, it’s not only joy – biblical joy isn’t the absence of all grief. Now, listen carefully, this is really important to me, it is crucial that you don’t misunderstand this series I am doing on joy – I am not saying that you should be happy-happy-happy all the time. Grieve, let others grieve, grieve with them – our Lord wept with those who wept and so should we. We face circumstances in this life when grief is the only rational, even biblical, response – but joy and grief are not mutually exclusive; they can dwell in the same heart at the same time. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing” – joy and sorrow [SR8] can abide in the same heart at the same time. Think about it this way – the death of a believer; what do we experience in the death of a believer? Well, there’s grief; Paul says we grieve, it’s right that we grieve – death is an enemy, the last enemy to be destroyed – so, we grieve. But, at the same time, because that person is a believer, we are filled with joy because we know that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”[SR9] You see, in this life, joy and grief are often mixed and blended.
Thirdly, we’re not talking about perfect joy – biblical joy here isn’t the uninterrupted, perfect joy of heaven. Don’t expect perfection, allow people to struggle in their battle for joy – we all struggle at different times. I’ll just be honest with you – in certain trials, I find it relatively easy to find joy. Ironically, they tend to be the big trials – cancer, and things like that. But I find it relatively harder to find joy in some of the smaller trials that come into life. We all understand that we’ll only experience perfect, sinless joy in heaven.
Number four, we’re not talking about artificial joy – biblical joy isn’t a refusal to acknowledge hard things. Some people just hate negative things, and so, they deny reality and just refuse to think about difficult things. But to put hard things out of your mind and to live as if they aren’t really happening, that isn’t joy – that’s pretend, that’s artificial joy.
Number five, we’re not talking about temperamental joy – biblical joy isn’t merely a positive outlook or temperament. Some people are just naturally jovial and happy; others tend naturally more to melancholy. But having a positive temperament is not biblical joy; real joy is always tested when trials come, and even naturally jovial people can struggle, because that’s not joy.
So, with that understanding, then, let’s investigate how to cultivate real biblical joy in every circumstance, in both favorable and in difficult circumstances. Here are the foundational principles of how Jesus’ own capacity for joy is reproduced in our hearts. This is the – I told you, I experienced a moment of illumination a couple of weeks ago when I woke up and all of these conflicting ideas and biblical concepts were rattling around in my brain, and they just all sort of synced together and I saw them; here it is, this is what I learned. If we’re going to have Jesus’ own joy, it starts by this – know the truth of God’s word about your circumstances. Know the truth of God’s word about your circumstances – this is how you find joy in favorable circumstances, because if you know those favorable circumstances, those good things are from God, and you understand that He’s the giver of every good gift, then you can find joy in that. But this is also how we find joy in our trials – we must know the truth of God, first of all, about trials generally. About trials generally – turn back to Romans 5. “We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance.” You see, we can only rejoice in our trials because of what we know – and what is the knowledge that produces joy? Verse 3 says “knowing that tribulation brings about,” or produces, “perseverance.” The troubles of life bring about a growing ability to remain under the trial. You say, why does that help? Verse 4, “Perseverance produces proven character” – when we persevere in our trials, it produces proven character; that is, it proves to us our character, it shows us we’re really, genuinely Christians. And verse 4 says, “And that proven character,” once I have that assurance that I’m really a Christian, “that produces hope.” It stirs up hope in God and in the future; trials increase your hope for what’s coming.
Now, keep that in mind and turn to James 1 again, because James develops this – he says, verse 2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” here it is again, “knowing.” You see, joy is a state of mind that flows from knowing, that flows from right theology, from several overarching convictions that are true, regardless of your circumstances; they’re here in the text. You need to know that God is behind every trial you face – notice “testing.” “Testing,” he says, “the testing of your faith” – that implies that someone is administering the test; it’s obviously God. He is absolutely sovereign over your circumstances; His wisdom has allowed it – you have to know that in order to have joy in trials. You also need to know that God intends every trial for your spiritual good – notice James calls trials “the testing of your faith.” If you want to benefit from your troubles and trials, you have to remember that God isn’t just playing with you – He intends that trial for your good. We use Romans 8:28 tritely at times, but it’s still true – “God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” And, if you respond properly, every trial will – listen to this – increase your spiritual maturity. Notice what he writes in verse 3, “the testing of your faith produces endurance” – why is endurance so important? You know, you say, well, I don’t want endurance – you know, Lord, just don’t bring me any trials, I don’t really care about endurance – why is endurance important? Well, in Romans 5, we learn that it produces proven character that shows you you’re really a Christian when you stay faithful to Christ in the midst of troubles. Here, we learn endurance produces spiritual maturity – notice the result of endurance, verse 4, “Let endurance have its perfect result, so that,” here it is, “you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” The result of endurance is spiritual maturity – James states it positively, “so that you may be perfect,” that word is used of maturity when it’s talking about people, people who are grown up into adulthood, and “complete,” that’s wholeness, having all its parts. Negatively, he says “lacking in nothing” – literally, the Greek text says, “in nothing left behind.” You can have joy regardless of your circumstances if you are confident, in a general sense, that whatever trial, whatever trouble you find yourself in, it was ordered by the very hand of a sovereign, good, and gracious God, and He will use those circumstances for your good and for His glory.
But you must also know not only the truth about trials generally, but you must know the truth of God’s word about each trial specifically. I love Ephesians 6:17, it’s part of the armor of God we’re to put on, how we’re to arm ourselves for the warfare that we’re in as believers – and you’re familiar with it, but listen to it again. He says, “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” I wish I had time to really unpack that; you can go listen to the series on Ephesians 6 – but the Greek word that’s translated “word” in that sentence is not the normal word; instead, it’s the word rhema, and the word rhema describes a particular statement of God’s word. So, the sword of the Spirit, then, is a specific, individual statement or proposition of scripture – you see, when we’re tempted to respond wrongly to our trials, in that moment, you can’t use the whole Bible; it’s not an effective weapon. No, instead, we need to know specific statements that God has made that deal specifically with our circumstances, and then use those statements like Christ did at His own temptation. Think about that – He is in horrific circumstances and being tempted to sin in those circumstances in Matthew 4, and what does He do in each case? He pulls out the sword of the Spirit; a little, short statement of scripture that He understands and believes, and He uses it to fight the temptation in the midst of His circumstances. That’s what you and I are to do – that means we have to know what the scripture says about our circumstance. Are you suffering with financial loss, are you suffering and wondering how you’re going to make ends meet? Are you suffering with family issues, are you suffering with having lost your job, are you suffering with illness or some physical disease, cancer, whatever, the loss of a loved one? You have to know what the Bible says about those things and use them effectively. To cultivate joy, you have to know the truth of God’s word about your circumstances.
Secondly, you have to believe God’s word about your circumstances. You have to believe God’s word – in Romans 5 and James 1, that word “knowing,” in context, is not mere factual knowledge, but it’s knowing and believing it to be true. Romans 15:13 is explicit; “May the God of hope fill you with all joy” – how? “In believing” – it’s when you believe God, what He’s said about your circumstances, that you will have joy. John Calvin says this, “Stable joy proceeds from faith alone” – you want stable joy in your life? It proceeds, he says, “from faith alone.” You see, this is the primary reason we often fail to have joy – it’s not merely knowing what God has said, but believing what God has said that produces joy. Luther puts it this way, “There is no solid joy in this world, except the joy which the word affords to the man who believes it.” He goes on to say this – and this is pretty confrontive – he says, “We can mark our lack of faith by our joy, for our joy must necessarily be as great as our faith.” You want to know how great your true confidence and belief in what God has said in His word is? Look at your joy; they’ll measure exactly the same – your joy will be at the same level as your confidence and belief that what God has said about your circumstances is true. When you don’t have joy, ask yourself what God has said in His word that you’re not believing – are you failing to believe what He says about trials in general, or are you failing to believe what He says about your specific trial? Joy and faith rise and fall together.
There’s a third foundational principle for cultivating joy, and that’s rehearse God’s word about your circumstances. Rehearse – often, when we lack joy, in spite of what we say we believe about God and His word, it’s because we aren’t reminding ourselves regularly of God’s truth. We knew it, and it’s somewhere there in the back of our minds, but in our circumstances, we’re not rehearsing it, we’re not reminding ourselves. There are so many examples of this, biblically – I love three of them that I want to cite for you - one is Psalm 73. Asaph is struggling; he’s struggling with envy over the wicked – he says, look at my life as a righteous person, I’ve got all these troubles, look at these rich, wealthy people who don’t believe in God, and they seem to have lives that are carefree. He’s really struggling – how does he come to joy in the midst of that? Well, he reminds himself of what the scripture says about the end of the wicked and the end of the righteous, and as he reminds himself of the truth, as he rehearses what he knows, he rediscovers his joy! Take Jeremiah in Lamentations 3 – Jeremiah is in the worst trial of his life; we’re talking about his country destroyed, his family destroyed, his freedom taken, lost everything, his city destroyed, the temple of God destroyed – it’s the end; a devastated life! And how does he find joy? He says, you know, it’s so bad it’s like I’m chewing gravel – have you ever felt that way? He says, I reminded myself of this, and then my hope and joy were restored, and he goes on to rehearse what he knows about the character of God. You have to remind yourself of what you know; you have to rehearse the truth that you know and believe. Habakkuk 3, the same thing – Habakkuk learns that the Babylonians are going to destroy the nation of Israel, it’s going to be gone, wiped off the planet, and how does he find joy at the end of his book? He says, look – the Lord is my salvation[SR10] . He reminds himself of the truth about God, and that’s how he finds joy in the midst of such a terrible trial.
The truth is, we often steal our joy by rehearsing something else in our minds; we often – listen carefully – tell ourselves and believe lies about our circumstances, rather than God’s truth. Lies like these – I don’t deserve this, it’s not fair, I’m the only one facing hard times like this, everyone else around me has a trouble-free life, this is just more than I can handle, God has given me more than I can bear, God must not love me anymore to let this in my life – and on and on the lies go. Listen, if you let your mind go wherever it wants to go, it will inevitably tell you lies and you will believe those lies. The key to the Christian life, and the key to joy, is what Lloyd-Jones said – this is the most important spiritual lesson I’ve ever learned, and it will be the most important one you’ve ever learned – “Stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself.” What Lloyd-Jones meant is, don’t let your mind just go where it goes – tell yourself to shut up! I do that all the time – Pennington, shut up, that isn’t true! And then tell yourself the truth. When you’re struggling with joy, pay attention to what you’re saying to yourself and to others and believing about your circumstances, then look at the scripture to see what you should be saying and believing about your circumstances. Let me put it a different way – preach the truth to yourself; tell yourself to shut up, don’t let your mind go to those lies that your mind will go to, and preach the truth to yourself, and then you will have joy.
There’s a fourth foundational principle for cultivating joy, and that’s give thanks and praise for what God’s word says about your circumstances. Give thanks and praise – you see, biblical joy expresses itself, it starts in the heart. I love Deuteronomy 28:47, which confronts God’s people “because they did not serve the Lord with joy and a glad heart.” It starts in the heart, but it then expresses itself in your countenance. Proverbs 15:13, “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face.” Don’t misunderstand; we’re not talking about a pasted grin, we’re talking about a face that shows you believe God and you know, even in the midst of difficulty, He is going to do you good, and it shows in your countenance. But it also shows in your words to God and to others, joy expresses itself. In Psalm 92:1-4, the psalmist gives thanks to God, sings praises, declares God’s steadfast love – why? He says, “because You, O Lord, have made me glad.” When God makes you glad, it expresses itself in praise and thanks. Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always” – that’s active. Joy is something that we have, rejoice is the acting out of that joy. 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice always.” Kidner says “we are made glad by the works of God and His ways, in proportion as we give our minds and voices to expressing the wonder of them.”
As we finish our study of the believer’s life of joy, let me just mention a final category – the consummation of a believer’s joy. The consummation – if you’re a believer, if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, for eternity you will experience perfect, unmitigated, unblended, unmixed, indestructible joy. It won’t be like joy here that’s all blended with grief; it will be pure joy. Psalm 16:11, “You will make known to me the path that leads to life; in Your presence, God, is fullness of joy, in Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” At the judgment described in Matthew 25, Jesus says to believers, He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant, … enter into the joy of your master”[SR11] – that’s eternity, the joy of your Master. Jude 24, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy” – listen, in this Christmas season, never forget that with the birth of Jesus Christ, in the words of the song we sang earlier, “joy dawned upon the world.” That joy began with the announcement to the shepherds, the announcement that this child would bring salvation; that joy reached its crescendo, oddly enough, at the cross, when Jesus saved His people from their sins by the sacrifice of Himself, and then with the resurrection as He defeated death. But joy began in our hearts when we believed that gospel – and let me just say, if you’re here this morning and you’ve never believed in Jesus Christ, you will never experience the joy I’ve been talking about this morning until you humble yourself, you’re willing to get on your knees before God, plead for forgiveness in Jesus Christ – then you will have this joy. This joy begins in our hearts when we believe the gospel, and throughout the rest of our lives in this broken world, Jesus continually gives us His own capacity for joy, and someday we will enter eternally into the joy of our Master, and the indestructible joy of Jesus will be the joy of eternity – no wonder we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” Let’s pray together.
Father, thank You for our time together this morning – seal Your words to our hearts. Father, may we know the joy of Jesus Himself throughout our lives here, joy mixed with grief, but real, pure joy. And Father, may we anticipate the day when we will be filled with the fullness of joy in Your presence.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.