Sunday, November 1, 2015

The Gift of Joy (In Three Parts)

(Transcript of a series taught at Landmark Baptist Church, Locust Grove, GA, on October 11, 18, and 25.)

Text: Is. 35:10, 61:7


INTRODUCTION
This week my thoughts turned away from miserable Cain to joy, especially that joy is eternal, as our texts show us. I decided to take a look at joy: its meaning, origin, and scope, and it’s been a rewarding study. Many times the things that we take for granted will bring great rewards if we pause long enough to notice them. Someone said, “Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” Didn’t David say in Ps. 139:14, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:”?
In this spirit, I’d like to take a longer look at joy itself, with the goals of (1) understanding it better, on the doctrinal side; and (2) on the practical side, appreciating it more, and grasping more firmly where it should be centered. This first lesson will primarily deal with defining and understanding joy better, while the next lesson (or two) will deal with where our joys, as members of the body of Christ, should be centered,.

MEANING: DEFINITION
Firstly, what is joy? Tough question, isn’t it? It’s something we know exists, and we know that we’ve experienced, but what exactly is it? C.S. Lewis said that his life before his conversion was essentially a quest for joy; he felt the longing for something more than what he could see, and when he finally came to know true joy, what a pleasant surprise it was. The autobiography of his early life is, appropriately, entitled, Surprised by Joy.
      I’d like to show you three scriptures which I think unite to give us a good definition of joy. Let’s begin in the curious book of Ecclesiastes, 2:1, “I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.” Notice carefully, “enjoy pleasure.” So there’s a connection between joy and pleasure.  We also see this in Ps. 16:11, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” See it again: joy…pleasures. One more from the general epistles, Heb. 11:25. Of Moses it says, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;”
      So based on these “two or three witnesses” from scripture, I see joy as pleasure. What you enjoy or rejoice in is what brings you pleasure. Listen to the first question and answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a doctrinal primer of Reformed churches:

            Question 1:      What is the chief end of man?
            Answer:           Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

      This Q&A, to me, magnifies joy even more. The context here is the chief, or most important, purpose of man. Joy is bound up with that. Wow! This chief end is twofold: (1) for man to glorify God; that is where everything should tend and where everything will end: the glory and magnification of Almighty God; if what you’re doing isn’t for that ultimate end, it’s not worth doing; (2) for man to enjoy God; for God not only to be our authority or who we answer to, but someone we truly have pleasure in, more than anything else.
      In Ps. 43:4, David said, “Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.” See the joy that goes with the glory? If the answer stopped at “glorify God,” it wouldn’t be complete, and you know that by looking at the universe. God didn’t make myriads of heartless, emotionless creatures to puff him up, respectfully. He designed us so that our joy or pleasure in him would bring him the most glory. John Piper puts it this way in his book Desiring God, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with him.” It magnifies his importance when we rejoice in him and put him before everything else in our affections. So, in light of man’s chief end, joy is something we should definitely seek to understand better and ensure that it’s centered where it should be, my primary goals for this short series.

ORIGIN: AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD
Ps. 104:31 says, “The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.”

All three members of the Godhead are seen rejoicing or producing joy at some point:
      (1) Father (Ps. 104:31, e.g.);
      (2) Son (Luke 10:21; even as “a man or sorrows” he did, occasionally, rejoice); and
      (3) Spirit (Rom. 14:17; 1 Thes. 1:6)

And in the spirit of the catechism, in support of scripture, the Godhead is also to be rejoiced in by creation:
(     (1)   Father (Rom. 5:11); “in God (i.e. the Father) through our Lord Jesus Christ”
      (2)   Son (Phil. 3:3)
(     (3)   Spirit (gratitude for his ministry and presence)

Joy is an attribute of God, so it’s eternal. It always has been. In the beginning, there was joy, true. Job 38:6-7 says that the angels rejoiced when God created the original earth. But long before even the angels were created, there was joy in the heart of God. And isn’t it awesome that that spiritual joy, from God and in God, now lives inside of you? What an unspeakable gift! We were made for joy, since our God is a God of joy. He takes pleasure in what he does (Ps. 104:31), and he made his creatures to take pleasure in him, forever. Let’s now take a look at the general scope of joy among God’s creatures. This will also include a brief description of false joy for completeness.

SCOPE: GOD’S CREATURES (for ever)
God rejoiced when he made angels, men, and creation. He also made all of his creatures to rejoice: from highest to lowest order, for ever. There will be joy for ever in the creature as well as the Creator, as our text shows, and other verses. Paul said simply, but profoundly, to the body of Christ: “Rejoice evermore” (1 Thes. 5:16), and we read in Rev. 21:4, that “there shall be no more…sorrow.” Well, the opposite of sorrow is joy, according to Jesus (John 16:22), so in absence of sorrow, all must be joy, hallelujah!

·         Angels
    Beginning with the highest order of beings, we see that they were made to rejoice. I’ve already mentioned their presence and joy at the original creation, but their joy isn’t limited to that. In Luke 15:7 we read of “joy in heaven” over a sinner’s repentance, but v. 10 makes it clear that the angels are among those rejoicing. So they rejoice not only in creation, but also redemption. Richard Baxter, the Puritan writer, wrote a massive volume on Christian practice entitled, A Christian Directory, and one chapter dealt with angels’ relation to men. I had never thought about this, but he took passages like this as proof of angels’ love for us. They’re not emotionless toward lower orders of beings. If God loves us, why wouldn’t they? If they didn’t love us, why would they care one way or another about our well being? So they’re not robots any more than we are. They have a mind, will, and emotions like their Creator and the order just “a litter lower” (Ps. 8:5) than them, men. One final thing that they rejoice in: God’s judgments. It’s great to rejoice in creation and redemption, but not complete. Holy joy includes pleasure, albeit a negative sort of pleasure, in God’s severity as well as his goodness (Rom. 11:22). God tells the inhabitants of heaven to rejoice over Babylon’s fall in Rev. 18:20, and they do it themselves in 19:1-4. It’s not that we have pleasure in the pain resulting from the judgment, but we do have pleasure in God’s holiness being upheld by it. That’s how John Piper explains perhaps the most terrible verse in scripture, Deut. 28:63, “And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought;” etc. God tells us in Ezek. 33:11 that “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live…” So it’s not the negative outcome for those judged that God takes pleasure in, but rather that the outcome upholds his holiness and glory, his highest priority. 

·         Men
      Moving on now to those whom David said in Ps. 8:5 were “a little lower than the angels,” i.e., men, we see that they were made to rejoice also. Neh. 8:10, “…the joy of the LORD is your strength”; 1 Thes. 5:16, “Rejoice evermore” are aimed at men, so men are made to rejoice, and that eternally, as 1 Thes. 5:16 and our texts show. Hearkening back to the Shorter Catechism, God made each part of the human family for his glory:
o   Israel: Is. 43:5-7
o   Nations: Rev. 21:23-26
o   Body of Christ: Eph. 3:20-21

He also made all men for his pleasure (Rev. 4:11), and he wants us to glorify him and take pleasure in him, just as we read in the Shorter Catechism. Men also share in the joys of creation (i.e. afterward), redemption (Luke 15:32), and even judgment (Rev. 18:20). I don’t see any joy at the white throne judgment in Dan. 7 or Rev. 20, but in light of Rev. 18:20 and 19:1-4, it might be there.

False joy
Men and fallen angelic beings are capable of a false, evil joy, which is not eternal, but temporary. In Job 20:4-5, Zophar the Naamathite asks us, “Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth,/That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?” So since Adam’s creation, the observable, consistent outcome for evil joy was its brevity. Case in point: the cross. The only joy at the cross was false, evil joy. The devil, his kingdom, and his human allies likely rejoiced over that, but only for 72 hours. Once Christ arose, the applecart was upset, the miracle had to be explained away, and the Satanic kingdom suddenly realized that it had mortally wounded itself by killing Christ. Satan’s joy was thwarted and so is any other false joy that men or devils may hold, after a time.

·        Animal world
    You’ve heard it called the animal “kingdom.” Who’s the king? Simba? The lion may be “strongest among beasts” (Prov. 30:30), but God is the high king of the animals. All of them answer, and have answered, to him since they were created. There’s sense that they can rejoice, e.g. the horse in his own strength (Job 39:21), but I think that they also rejoice in their Creator, as well as obey him. He rendered them mute at the fall, as indicated by a talking serpent (Gen. 3:1-2)—note that the serpent didn’t reply to God once judged. However, I believe that their voices may be restored when the Lord returns, and at that time they’ll praise the Lord intelligibly. The four cherubim representing them in heaven are referred to as “beasts,” and these beasts speak and join in universal worship of God described in Rev. 4-5. Some verses that might support this idea: Ps. 96:12a, 148:7-14, 150:6; all, I would argue, having prophetic, millennial applications.

·        Plant and inanimate worlds
      Lastly, and as the preceding passages have already hinted at, God calls everything else he has made to rejoice in him, not only vice versa. Look again at Ps. 96:11-13, 98:7-9, 148:3-9, and Is. 55:12. Sure sounds like a call to active praise, doesn’t it? It doesn’t say, in context, for us to praise him for these things; cf. Ps. 103:1-19 (men), 20-21 (angels), 22 (everything else). I don’t know exactly how this will be done, but felt I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the beings lower than angels and men praising and rejoicing in God in some manner, which is simply an awesome thought. Even though everything in the universe is not God, as pantheists believe, everything that God made in the universe will, with the exception of the damned, rejoice in him in its own way.

Praise God for the gift of joy! Next time we’ll look at where our joys, as members of the body of Christ, should be centered, and bring God the most glory thereby.



THE GIFT OF JOY (Part II)
(Phil. 3:1-3, 1 Thes. 1:6)
  
Moving on to the practical application of what the Bible tells us about joy: Where should our joys, as members of the body of Christ, be centered? As men, we’re one of the groups that God has blessed with the gift of joy, but what, more specifically, are we to rejoice in? I’m going to being with the obvious things, which are also the most fundamental, using the texts I just read, then develop the list further from there, though not exhaustively. My intention is to present some things that you may not have thought about, using a variety of passages from Paul’s epistles.

1.      God himself
God is the source of our joy, according to our texts and others (Rom. 14:17, 15:13; Gal. 5:22). So it’s our native air, if you will (2 Cor. 6:10). But God is not only the source of our joy, but the most fundamental object of our joy. The other joys I’m going to talk about all spring from this one. It’s natural for us to rejoice in the Lord, since the Holy Spirit produces it in us, but it’s still a choice. That’s why Paul exhorts believers to rejoice; we must yield to that joy and so make God the object of it.
      That said, what does it mean to rejoice in the Lord? I think that the easiest way to explain it is to look at a few verses from Psalms (119:68; 107:8). God’s character determines his actions (119:68), and both of these things are praiseworthy (107:8). It’s pretty easy to praise the Lord for the things that he’s done. Do you remember the old AndraĆ© Crouch song, “My Tribute”? “To God be the glory…for the things he has done…” But I think what we often forget to do is praise the character that inspired those deeds, and the Bible encourages us to do that. Since we’re in Psalms, look over at Ps. 136. If you got nothing else out of this psalm, and it’s actually the main takeaway, it’s that God is merciful, right? Verses 4-25 give proof of that by things that he’s done. But the opening and closing praises are aimed directly at his character as the source of all these acts of mercy. See the balance? Now look at 2 Chron. 20:21. Here’s that praise again, “for his mercy endureth for ever,” from the singers at the head of Jehoshaphat’s army. Notice what precedes that phrase, though, as a lead-in: “that should praise the beauty of holiness…and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.”  God’s mercy is part of his holy character, and that’s what they’re praising here, not any specific deed.
      So we need to appreciate God, most fundamentally, for who he is, because that determines all of his wonderful works to the children of men. Spend time thinking about God’s character as well as the things that he’s done for you. I think that, in general, the more deeply you think about the Lord, the more you’ll appreciate him and likely have a proper view of him. I realize that some deep thinkers can have erroneous views of God, but that’s a heart issue and should not be a deterrent to this type of thought. Let’s hear from Frederick Faber, who wrote the hymn, “Faith of our Fathers”:

Only to sit and think of God,
Oh, what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the name,
Earth has no higher bliss.

2.      God’s word
This one probably comes as no surprise either, from our text verse in 1 Thes. 1:6. As member of Christ’s body, we should obviously rejoice in the word of one we find so much joy in personally. And I think that there’s a circle here. Rejoicing in God’s word will deepen your joy in him, and vice versa. If someone is lacking joy in the Lord, there’s a good chance that they’re not engaged in his word like they should be, since the natural outcome of that engagement is a deeper joy in the Lord, despite any circumstances.
     Let’s look at Rom. 15:1-5 for an example of this. In the first three verses, Paul exhorts stronger, more mature believers to bear with the infirmities of weaker, less mature believers, for the sake of Christ. That’s the spirit of v. 3, which is a reference to Christ bearing something for God’s sake (the reproaches of others). So mature believers will have to bear the infirmities of younger ones, but that’s not the end of the passage. Comfort is offered through the scriptures for whatever we’re bearing (v. 4), and the comfort comes from “the God of patience and consolation” (v. 5). See how God’s actions arise from his character? His word harmonizes with his character too. Since he himself is a God of patience and consolation, he offers that to believers through his word.
     Both testaments, especially the old, refer to saints’ joy in God’s word. It’s really an ageless hallmark of a saint. Sinners care little to nothing for God’s word. But saints do. Look at Ps. 19:7-10, a great passage on the word of God (read). Verse 8 speaks of the righteous statutes of the LORD “rejoicing the heart,” while v. 9 refers to “the fear of the Lord…enduring for ever.” The word of God is meant to inspire fear, purity, and joy…for ever. So we’re back to our original theme of eternal joy. Where can it be found? In God and his word, most fundamentally. Next we’ll take a look at sundry joys that spring from these two most basics joys as members of Christ’s body.



THE GIFT OF JOY (Part III):
Some Joys of the Body of Christ

Last time we covered the most fundamental joys of believers in Christ: God himself and his word. We saw God as the source of our joy and the object of our joy. True, lasting, spiritual joy comes from God and his centered upon him, i.e. his character and his actions. Since God’s word is an expression of his character (Mt. 12:34b) and a record of his actions, then to rejoice in God is to rejoice in his word, and vice versa. These are our most fundamental joys as believers, from which all of the others really spring.
      In this lesson, I’d like to survey several of these joys. Some I omitted for the sake of time but also to encourage you to search for them yourselves privately. Some basic goals of teaching are not only demonstrating but also stimulating it. Good teaching will make you hungry to get in the Bible for yourself and “Prove all things” for yourself (1 The. 5:21), and that’s what I hope to provide.

1.      Salvation (Rom. 5:11; 1 Thes. 2:19-20)
First of all, we rejoice in our own salvation (Rom. 5:11). It’s a cause for joy that we “have now received the atonement.” Under the law, there were numerous atonements. Each time certain sacrifices were made, an atonement was made for the offender(s), i.e. they were reconciled (or made at one with) to the party offended, i.e., God.
      This joy is basic and important. How can you influence others if you’re not sure of and rejoicing in your own salvation? I think that we find a spiritual example of this in David’s great penitential prayer, Ps. 51. Notice vv. 12-13, where he asks God to restore “the joy of [God’s] salvation” and “renew a right spirit within [him].” David was the only one this affected. In v. 13, we see that one reason he wanted this joy restored was so that he could bring others to God. It would be hard, if not impossible, to win them without this joy, since it’s a great adornment of the gospel message. The gospel is to bring joy (Acts 13:52, 1 Thes. 1:6), and if we’re not joyful, we’re really not living consistent with our message, lessening its appeal to others.
      But is that where our joy in salvation stops, merely in our own? Of course not! Just as the holy angels rejoice over every sinner that repenteth (Luke 15:7), holy brethren should rejoice over every sinner that receives Christ as well. Paul certainly did. He called the Philippians his “joy and crown” in Phil. 4:1 and the Thessalonians the same in 1 Thes. 2:19-20. Isn’t serving the Lord a blessing? You not only have joy down here for obeying, but also up there and eternal rewards to boot. Whatever you do to effect sinners’ conversions will be rewarded. Some encouraging verses on this are 1 Cor. 3:6-8, where Paul mentions his sowing, Apollos’ watering, and God’s giving the increase. Notice v. 8 especially, where it says that “every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.” Sounds pretty fair, amen? Let’s get busy telling others about Christ so that we can not only rejoice in our own salvation, but in others’ as well.

2.      Hope of glory (Rom. 5:2, 12:12)
It’s interesting that Rom. 5 mentions another joy for us. Look at v. 2: “we…rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” This theme, our hope of glory, runs all through Paul’s epistles, and I don’t have time to run all of the references. Another is found in Rom. 12:12 among other basic instructions for godly living in this age. So it’s fundamental like joy in God and his word, but what makes us rejoice in hope of glory is whose glory we’ll share. There’s an older contemporary song called, “The Road to Zion,” and the last verse goes like this: “Sometimes it’s good to look back now/We’ve come so far, we’ve gained such ground/But joy is not in where we’ve been/Joy is who’s waiting at the end.” Christ is the source and object of our joy and this blessed hope, as Paul shows us in Col. 1:28 and 1 Tim. 1:1. Christ is what we hope for, but he also generates the hope. What a blessing! Are you rejoicing in hope today, hope of the glory of God? Or are your hopes fixed on things below? Some people think that if a nation just gets the right leader, it will turn things around. The only leader that’s going to bring lasting peace to any nation is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Ps. 46:9 says that “He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth…” and that “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end…”
When? “upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom…” You won’t have world peace until Christ is seated upon the throne of David, which he is NOT right now. He’s seated at the right hand of God, but not upon David’s throne.

3.      Opportunity to fellowship (Rom. 15:32; 1 Thes. 3:9-11; 2 Tim. 1:4; Rom. 1:10-12)
So to summarize the last two points, we rejoice in retrospect (looking back) but also in prospect (looking forward). But what about joy in “the nasty now and now,” or as others refer to it, “the precious present” (depending on your outlook). We learn from that past, but we don’t live there. We plan for the future, but it’s not here yet. We must live now, so we must have joy now. What are some things about the present that we can rejoice in continually? I’m only going to give you three, but they’re all important and, as I said before, will hopefully inspire further study.
      Firstly, we should rejoice in the opportunities we have to fellowship with other saints. Fellowship with other believers is absolutely vital to your Christian life. There are no Rambo Christians, living out the Christian life in a vacuum. Whether you realize it and apply it or not, you’re part of a body of connected members that live together, work together, and rejoice together (1 Cor. 12:26-27).
      Many saints take their ties and relationships with other saints far too casually. They can take them or leave them, or so they think. Not Paul and saints through the ages. In Rom. 1:10-12, Paul expresses his yearning to get to Rome to minister to the saints there, but also to be ministered to by them. You see the same thing in 1 Thes. 3:9-11, with the same intensity, and finally in 2 Tim. 1:4. The last time that Paul mentions joy, it’s the joy he anticipates from seeing and being with another brother. That’s noteworthy. To the end, Paul rejoiced in the fellowship of the saints.
      Our hymnody captures these longings as well. Most of you know the song, “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds,” but do you feel this way: “When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain…”? Does it pain you to walk out those doors, to be separated from other believers? Another old hymn, “The Parting Hand,” talks about saints having to “take the parting hand,” or shake hands farewell, by the constraints of living in this world. The spirit of the song, though, is the sadness that comes with that, not the relief of getting out of church. You don’t know what you’re missing when you won’t spend time with other believers. You can excuse yourself all you want, but you’re just cheating yourself and others by not spending time with them and bonding with them the best that you can. I want to be as close to every brother and sister as I can, within the bounds of propriety, all the while fulfilling my family and worldly duties. My family is great, but they’re not the body of Christ. You have to connect and bond with people outside your family if you’re going to receive the fullness of grace that God has for you, and fulfill your duty to other saints. Paul tells us in Phil. 1:7, “ye are all partakers of my grace,” and like it or not, saints are means or channels of God’s grace, and if you avoid them, you avoid God. Part of your holy vocation is “lowliness…meekness…longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Eph. 4:2). I’m sorry, folks, but you cannot develop and express those graces apart from other believers. You must engage them, if you wish to mature like you should. All that aside, it’s a great joy to fellowship with other believers. Some of the most joyous times of my life have been the times where I actively fellowshipped with other believers over the word of God and the things of God. Seek that type of fellowship, y’all, every chance you get, and see how much joy it brings to your life overall.

4.      Opportunity to give (2 Cor. 8:2)
Paul begins his exhortations to the Corinthians on giving with an example: the churches of Macedonia (v. 1). He describes how their afflictions, by God’s grace (v. 1), abounded unto joy and liberality, despite their poverty. Wow, what a marvelous example of grace! With affliction and poverty against them, they produce boundless joy and liberality. That’s supernatural, and that’s why Paul calls it “the grace of God.” Note the connection between joy and liberality. Joy leads to liberality, and liberality brings joy.
      We should rejoice at all opportunities to give, either of our time, talent, or treasure, since giving brings not only joy, but grace. According to 2 Cor. 9:8-10, the more you give, the more grace God gives you to do everything that you need to do, as well as supplying your physical needs (v. 10; Phil. 4:19). So you cannot lose by wisely giving. It should be joy when it’s time to give, however God asks, in light of the certain rewards (1 Tim. 6:19) of giving up “uncertain riches” (1 Tim. 6:17).

5.      Maturity of believers
Lastly, something that should bring us deep joy as saints is seeing other believers mature in Christ. The apostle John said, in a kingdom context, “I have no greater joy, than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4). Do you have not just joy, but great joy, to see other believers going on with God and growing up spiritually? You should. The apostles certainly did, and their joy was inspired by God, the same God living inside of us. Let’s look at some examples.
·         Col. 2:5—orderly walk, stedfastness in the faith
·         Phile. 7—saints refreshing other saints
·         Phile. 20—deeper refreshment: having grace with an erring brother
·         Phil. 2:14-16—right with God, right with each other, right with the world, and holding forth the word of life to all

So there will be joy at the rapture not only about the salvation, but also the maturity of saints after salvation. Col. 1:27 speak of “the hope of glory,” but that’s followed by Col. 1:28 “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” That will be part of the joy—seeing those that we helped save, but also seeing those that we ministered to after salvation mature, when the Lord returns.

This concludes my series on “The Gift of Joy,” and what an unspeakable gift it is. Peter exhorted the kingdom saints to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pt. 1:8), and so should we as mystery saints, every way we can, beginning with joy in God and his word, followed by joy in our salvation and others’, in our hope of glory, and in things of the present like fellowship with other believers, opportunities to give, and the maturation of saints. The Christian life is, fundamentally, a life of joy, so let’s not miss out on the joys that God has for us now and in the ages to come. Hallelujah!