The Strength of Joy

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

Nehemiah 8:5–6 ESV

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 8

Nehemiah 8:8

This vast congregation felt the full emotional force of Scripture. They felt the Sword of the Spirit open up there hearts, tearing, cutting, and killing. This Sword was not wielded in a wild manner unconcerned about the damage it would inflict. It was wielded in a manner consistent with that of a skillful surgeon. Each cut precisely measured for maximum effectiveness. Each cut, though pain, restorative.

Nehemiah 8:8–10 ESV

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:9–10 ESV

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Repentance leads to praise. The pathway that leads to delight and joy are soften with the tears of repentance.

Our text provides for us an elementary and yet profound understanding of joy.

The Origin of Joy

“The joy of the Lord.”

Since man fell in the garden he has sought for his enjoyment in the same place the serpent finds his

Genesis 3:14 ESV

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

Joys bound by the constraint of time cannot satisfy an undying nature. Man who is eternal can find no lasting enjoyment in worldly enjoyments because what we sees, touches, feels, and tastes are temporal.

He has given us appetites that worldly pleasures cannot satisfy and He has provided suitable satisfaction for those appetites.

Psalm 16:11 ESV

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Let us dig in this morning and analyze this peculiar pleasure called “the joy of the Lord”.

It genesis is from God and has God for its objective. The believer who is in a spiritually healthy state rejoices mainly in God Himself; they are happy because there is a God, and because God dwells in them.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

The believer who is in a spiritually healthy state rejoices mainly in God Himself; he is happy because there is a God, and because God is in His person and character what He is.

. Since man fell in the garden, he has too often sought for his enjoyments where the serpent finds his; it is written, “upon your belly shall you go, and so shall you eat dust all the days of your life”; this was the serpent’s doom, and man, with infatuated ambition, has tried to find his delight in his sensual appetites, and to content his soul with earth’s poor dust. But the joys of time cannot satisfy an undying nature, and when a soul is once quickened by the eternal Spirit, it can no more fill itself with worldly mirth, or even with the common enjoyments of life, than can a man snuff up wind and feed on it; but, beloved, we are not left to search for joy, it is brought to our doors by the love of God our Father; joy refined and satisfying, befitting immortal spirits. God has not left us to wander among those unsatisfactory things which mock the chase which they invite; He has given us appetites which carnal things cannot content, and He has provided suitable satisfaction for those appetites; he has stored up at His right hand pleasures forevermore, which even now He reveals by His Spirit to those chosen ones whom He has taught to long for them. Let us endeavor to analyze that special and peculiar pleasure which is here called “The joy of the Lord.” It springs from God, and has God for its objective. The believer who is in a spiritually healthy state rejoices mainly in God Himself; he is happy because there is a God, and because God is in His person and character what He is. All the attributes of God become well-springs of joy to the thoughtful, contemplative believer, for such a man says within his soul, “All these attributes of my God are mine; His power is my protection; His wisdom is my guidance; His faithfulness, is my foundation; His grace is my salvation.” He is a God who cannot die, faithful and true to His promise. He is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy. Why, the contemplation of God to one who knows that this God is His God forever and ever is enough to make the eyes overflow with tears because of the deep, mysterious, unutterable bliss which fills the heart! There was nothing in the character of Jupiter, or any of the pretended gods of the heathen, to make anyone glad; but there is everything in the character of Jehovah both to purify the heart, and to make it thrill with delight. How sweet is it to think over all the Lord has done—how He has revealed Himself of old, and especially how He has displayed His glory in the covenant of grace, and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ! How charming is the thought that He has revealed Himself to me personally, and made me to see in Him my Father, my friend, my helper, my God! Oh, if there is one word out of heaven that cannot be excelled, even by the brightness of heaven itself, it is this word, “My God, my Father,” and that sweet promise, “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” There is no richer consolation to be found; even the Spirit of God can bring nothing home to the heart of the Christian more fraught with delight than that blessed consideration! When the child of God, after admiring the character and wondering at the acts of God, can all the while feel, “He is my God; I have taken Him to be mine; He has taken me to be His; He has grasped me with the hand of His powerful love, having loved me with an everlasting love, with the bands of lovingkindness has He drawn me to Himself’ my beloved is mine, and I am His”—why, then, his soul would gladly dance like David before the ark of the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord with all its might! A further source of joy is found by the Christian who is living near to God in a deep sense of reconciliation to God, of acceptance with God, and yet, beyond that, of adoption and close relationship to God. Does it not make a man glad to know that though once his sins had provoked the Lord, they are all blotted out, and not one of them remains; though once he was estranged from God, and far off from Him by wicked works, yet he is made near by the blood of Christ? The Lord is no longer an angry Judge pursuing us with a drawn sword, but a loving Father into whose bosom we pour our sorrows, and find ease for every pang of heart. Oh, to know, beloved, that God actually loves us! I have often told you I cannot preach upon that theme, for it is a subject to muse upon in silence—a matter to sit by the hour together and meditate upon. The infinite to love an insignificant creature, a shadow that declines! Is not this a marvel? For God to pity me I can understand; for God to condescend to have mercy upon me I can comprehend; but for Him to love me? For the pure to love a sinner; for the infinitely great to love a worm— is matchless, a miracle of miracles! Such thoughts must comfort the soul; and then, add to this that the divine love has brought us believers into actual relationship with God, so that we are His sons and Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 3 3 daughters; this, again, is a river of sacred pleasure! “Unto which of the angels said He at any time, you are My son”? No minister of flame, though perfect in obedience, has received the honor of adoption! To us, even to us frail creatures of the dust, is given a benefit denied to Gabriel, for through Jesus Christ the first-born, we are members of the family of God! Oh, the abyss of joy which lies in sonship with God, and joint heirship with Christ! Words are vain here. Moreover, the joy springing from the spirit of adoption is another portion of the believer’s bliss. He cannot be an unhappy man who can cry, “Abba, Father.” The spirit of adoption is always attended by love, joy, and peace, which are fruits of the Spirit, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of liberty and joy in Christ Jesus. “My God, my Father.” Oh how sweet the sound! But all men of God do not enjoy this, you say. Alas, we grant it, but we also add that it is their own fault. It is the right and portion of every believer to live in the assurance that he is reconciled to God, that God loves him, and that he is God’s child; and if he does not so live, he has himself to blame; if there are any starving at God’s table, it is because the guest stints himself, for the feast is superabundant. If however, a man comes, and I pray you all may, to live habitually under a sense of pardon through the sprinkling of the precious blood, and in a delightful sense of perfect reconciliation with the great God, he is the possessor of an unspeakable joy and full of glory! But, beloved this is not all. The joy of the Lord in the spirit springs also from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by divine goodness. Being children of God, the love of God towards us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchangeable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However happy I may be today, if I am in doubt concerning tomorrow, there is a worm at the root of my peace. Although the past may now be sweet in retrospect, and the present fair in enjoyment, yet if the future is grim with fear, my joy is but shallow. If my salvation is still a matter of hazard and jeopardy, unmingled joy is not mine, and deep peace is still out of my reach; but when I know that He whom I have rested in has power and grace enough to complete that which He has begun in me, and for me; when I see the work of Christ to be no half-redemption, but a complete and eternal salvation; when I perceive that the promises are established upon an unchangeable basis, and are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, ratified by oath and sealed by blood, then my soul has perfect contentment! It is true, that looking forward there may be seen long avenues of tribulation, but the glory is at the end of them. Battles may be foreseen, and woe unto the man who does not expect them, but the eye of faith perceives the crown of victory. Deep waters are mapped upon our journey, but faith can see Jehovah fording these rivers with us, and she anticipates the day when we shall ascend the banks of the shore, and enter into Jehovah’s rest; when we have received these priceless truths of God into our souls, we are satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord. There is a theology which denies to believers this consolation; we will not enter into controversy with it, but sorrowfully hint that a heavy chastisement for the errors of that system of doctrine lies in the loss of the comfort which the truth would have brought into the soul. For my part, I value the gospel not only for what it has done for me in the past, but for the guarantees which it affords me of eternal salvation. “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck then out of My hand.” Now, beloved, I have not yet taken you into the great deeps of joy, though these streams are certainly, by no means, shallow; there is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God. I spoke of the truth that God loved us and the fact that we are related to Him by ties most near and dear; but, oh, when these doctrines become experiences, then are we, indeed, anointed with the oil of gladness! Then we enter into the love of God, and it enters into us; when we walk with God habitually, then our joy is like Jordan at harvest time, when it overflows all its banks. Do you know what it means to walk with God—Enoch’s joy; to sit at Jesus’ feet—Mary’s joy; to lean your head upon Jesus’ bosom—John’s familiar joy? Oh yes, communion with the Lord is no mere talk with some of us; we have known it in the chamber of affliction; we have known it in the solitude of many a night of broken rest; we have known it beneath discouragements, and under sorrows and defamations, and all sorts of ills; and we reckon that one dram of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation! Only to know that He is near us, and to see the gleaming of His dear eyes, would transform even hell, itself, into heaven, if it were possible for us to enjoy His presence there! Alas, you do not and cannot know this bliss, you who drink your foaming bowls. Listening to the sound of stringed instruments, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 4 4 you do not know what this bliss means; you have not dreamed of it, nor could you understand it though a man should show it to you. As the beast in the meadow knows not the far-reaching thoughts of him who reads the stars, and threads the spheres, so neither can the carnal man make so much as a guess of what are the joys which God has prepared for those who love Him, which any day and everyday, when our hearts seek it, He reveals to us by His Spirit! This is “The joy of the Lord”—fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we reach this point, we must labor to maintain our standing, for our Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people glad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

Let us endeavor to analyze that special and peculiar pleasure which is here called “The joy of the Lord.” It springs from God, and has God for its objective. The believer who is in a spiritually healthy state rejoices mainly in God Himself; he is happy because there is a God, and because God is in His person and character what He is. All the attributes of God become well-springs of joy to the thoughtful, contemplative believer, for such a man says within his soul, “All these attributes of my God are mine; His power is my protection; His wisdom is my guidance; His faithfulness, is my foundation; His grace is my salvation.” He is a God who cannot die, faithful and true to His promise. He is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy. Why, the contemplation of God to one who knows that this God is His God forever and ever is enough to make the eyes overflow with tears because of the deep, mysterious, unutterable bliss which fills the heart! There was nothing in the character of Jupiter, or any of the pretended gods of the heathen, to make anyone glad; but there is everything in the character of Jehovah both to purify the heart, and to make it thrill with delight. How sweet is it to think over all the Lord has done—how He has revealed Himself of old, and especially how He has displayed His glory in the covenant of grace, and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ! How charming is the thought that He has revealed Himself to me personally, and made me to see in Him my Father, my friend, my helper, my God! Oh, if there is one word out of heaven that cannot be excelled, even by the brightness of heaven itself, it is this word, “My God, my Father,” and that sweet promise, “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” There is no richer consolation to be found; even the Spirit of God can bring nothing home to the heart of the Christian more fraught with delight than that blessed consideration! When the child of God, after admiring the character and wondering at the acts of God, can all the while feel, “He is my God; I have taken Him to be mine; He has taken me to be His; He has grasped me with the hand of His powerful love, having loved me with an everlasting love, with the bands of lovingkindness has He drawn me to Himself’ my beloved is mine, and I am His”—why, then, his soul would gladly dance like David before the ark of the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord with all its might! A further source of joy is found by the Christian who is living near to God in a deep sense of reconciliation to God, of acceptance with God, and yet, beyond that, of adoption and close relationship to God. Does it not make a man glad to know that though once his sins had provoked the Lord, they are all blotted out, and not one of them remains; though once he was estranged from God, and far off from Him by wicked works, yet he is made near by the blood of Christ? The Lord is no longer an angry Judge pursuing us with a drawn sword, but a loving Father into whose bosom we pour our sorrows, and find ease for every pang of heart. Oh, to know, beloved, that God actually loves us! I have often told you I cannot preach upon that theme, for it is a subject to muse upon in silence—a matter to sit by the hour together and meditate upon. The infinite to love an insignificant creature, a shadow that declines! Is not this a marvel? For God to pity me I can understand; for God to condescend to have mercy upon me I can comprehend; but for Him to love me? For the pure to love a sinner; for the infinitely great to love a worm— is matchless, a miracle of miracles! Such thoughts must comfort the soul; and then, add to this that the divine love has brought us believers into actual relationship with God, so that we are His sons and Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 3 3 daughters; this, again, is a river of sacred pleasure! “Unto which of the angels said He at any time, you are My son”? No minister of flame, though perfect in obedience, has received the honor of adoption! To us, even to us frail creatures of the dust, is given a benefit denied to Gabriel, for through Jesus Christ the first-born, we are members of the family of God! Oh, the abyss of joy which lies in sonship with God, and joint heirship with Christ! Words are vain here. Moreover, the joy springing from the spirit of adoption is another portion of the believer’s bliss. He cannot be an unhappy man who can cry, “Abba, Father.” The spirit of adoption is always attended by love, joy, and peace, which are fruits of the Spirit, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of liberty and joy in Christ Jesus. “My God, my Father.” Oh how sweet the sound! But all men of God do not enjoy this, you say. Alas, we grant it, but we also add that it is their own fault. It is the right and portion of every believer to live in the assurance that he is reconciled to God, that God loves him, and that he is God’s child; and if he does not so live, he has himself to blame; if there are any starving at God’s table, it is because the guest stints himself, for the feast is superabundant. If however, a man comes, and I pray you all may, to live habitually under a sense of pardon through the sprinkling of the precious blood, and in a delightful sense of perfect reconciliation with the great God, he is the possessor of an unspeakable joy and full of glory! But, beloved this is not all. The joy of the Lord in the spirit springs also from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by divine goodness. Being children of God, the love of God towards us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchangeable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However happy I may be today, if I am in doubt concerning tomorrow, there is a worm at the root of my peace. Although the past may now be sweet in retrospect, and the present fair in enjoyment, yet if the future is grim with fear, my joy is but shallow. If my salvation is still a matter of hazard and jeopardy, unmingled joy is not mine, and deep peace is still out of my reach; but when I know that He whom I have rested in has power and grace enough to complete that which He has begun in me, and for me; when I see the work of Christ to be no half-redemption, but a complete and eternal salvation; when I perceive that the promises are established upon an unchangeable basis, and are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, ratified by oath and sealed by blood, then my soul has perfect contentment! It is true, that looking forward there may be seen long avenues of tribulation, but the glory is at the end of them. Battles may be foreseen, and woe unto the man who does not expect them, but the eye of faith perceives the crown of victory. Deep waters are mapped upon our journey, but faith can see Jehovah fording these rivers with us, and she anticipates the day when we shall ascend the banks of the shore, and enter into Jehovah’s rest; when we have received these priceless truths of God into our souls, we are satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord. There is a theology which denies to believers this consolation; we will not enter into controversy with it, but sorrowfully hint that a heavy chastisement for the errors of that system of doctrine lies in the loss of the comfort which the truth would have brought into the soul. For my part, I value the gospel not only for what it has done for me in the past, but for the guarantees which it affords me of eternal salvation. “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck then out of My hand.” Now, beloved, I have not yet taken you into the great deeps of joy, though these streams are certainly, by no means, shallow; there is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God. I spoke of the truth that God loved us and the fact that we are related to Him by ties most near and dear; but, oh, when these doctrines become experiences, then are we, indeed, anointed with the oil of gladness! Then we enter into the love of God, and it enters into us; when we walk with God habitually, then our joy is like Jordan at harvest time, when it overflows all its banks. Do you know what it means to walk with God—Enoch’s joy; to sit at Jesus’ feet—Mary’s joy; to lean your head upon Jesus’ bosom—John’s familiar joy? Oh yes, communion with the Lord is no mere talk with some of us; we have known it in the chamber of affliction; we have known it in the solitude of many a night of broken rest; we have known it beneath discouragements, and under sorrows and defamations, and all sorts of ills; and we reckon that one dram of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation! Only to know that He is near us, and to see the gleaming of His dear eyes, would transform even hell, itself, into heaven, if it were possible for us to enjoy His presence there! Alas, you do not and cannot know this bliss, you who drink your foaming bowls. Listening to the sound of stringed instruments, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 4 4 you do not know what this bliss means; you have not dreamed of it, nor could you understand it though a man should show it to you. As the beast in the meadow knows not the far-reaching thoughts of him who reads the stars, and threads the spheres, so neither can the carnal man make so much as a guess of what are the joys which God has prepared for those who love Him, which any day and everyday, when our hearts seek it, He reveals to us by His Spirit! This is “The joy of the Lord”—fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we reach this point, we must labor to maintain our standing, for our Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people glad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

All the attributes of God become well-springs of joy to the thoughtful, contemplative believer, for such a man says within his soul, “All these attributes of my God are mine; His power is my protection; His wisdom is my guidance; His faithfulness, is my foundation; His grace is my salvation.” He is a God who cannot die, faithful and true to His promise. He is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy.

Thoughtful contemplation of this God will cause the driest eyes to overflow with tears. In serious contemplation mystery becomes a means of magnification. Problems and pain become pathways of praise. Worry dissipates as worship dawns. Our ability to experience such joy separates us from all other world religions. No other pathway provides a god with a character which can provide such thrill and delight.

Ponder for a moment, child of God, that God has revealed himself to you personally and that you can call him my Father, my friend, my helper, my God! Can there be found a richer thought of consolation? Can we say anything more joyful than this; “He is my God; I have taken Him to be mine; He has taken me to be His; He has grasped me with the hand of His powerful love, having loved me with an everlasting love, with the bands of lovingkindness has He drawn me to Himself’ my beloved is mine, and I am His”. Suchn knowledge should cause us to respond as our forefather David did as he dance before the Lord rejoicing with all his might.

“He is my God; I have taken Him to be mine; He has taken me to be His; He has grasped me with the hand of His powerful love, having loved me with an everlasting love, with the bands of lovingkindness has He drawn me to Himself’ my beloved is mine, and I am His”

Another source of joy is found in the Christian who is living near to God in a deep sense of reconciliation to God, of acceptance with God, and of adoption and close relationship to God. Does it make you glad to know that all your sins have been forgiven and not one of them remain. Does it make you glad to know that you were once estranged from God cut off from him by your wicked works and yet he is brought you near by the blood of Christ. Do you want great gospel joy today? Then I can provide you with no greater source than this

1 John 3:1 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

There is no greater subject for our meditation. Yet, preaching upon this grand subject cannot fully bring it alive like that silent musing. There is much in this world at which we can marvel but none more so than this fact. Let me lay before you again the matchless love of God. How can the pure love the pariah? How can majesty mix with mud? How can the hero die for the villain? Oh that we would parse out time daily to ponder such glories. What would become of us if we committed ourselves to exegeting the excellencies en-grained within the inspired Scripture? What spiritual heights could we climb if we set our mind to mine out those meteoric truths through meditation?

Christian, have you stepped into the sanctuary this morning joyless? Do you find yourself weak? Do you remain uncertain of His love for you? Then let me press one more truth that I hope compels your heart to believe. God loves you because it is His nature to love you. However, God loves you uniquely because He has called you His child. He brings us into His family through adoption. There is an ocean of joy awaiting those who seek to understand the depths of sonship. A man cannot be unhappy who can cry, “Abba, Father.”

Let us pause for a moment for a reality check. Most Christian’s do not experience this experience. Why? These truths are self-evident within Scripture but they must be self-exercised. This experience is not available to a few but accessible to all. If this is not your experience then blame no one but yourself. Christian’s who are starving for joy do so in the midst of a table of superabundance spread by Christ himself.

As we work these truths into our hearts we then find themselves working their way into our lives.

Nothing can provide a person with more constant joy than living under the habitual knowledge that there sins have been pardoned and they have been reconciled to God.

But wait there is more . . .

The joy of the Lord springs from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by divine goodness. As a child of God the love of God is steady state because of immutable character. The child of God can rest themselves in unchangeable character of God. Our joy can be unshakeable because our God is unchangeable.

Being children of God, the love of God towards us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchan geable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However As

If you find yourself happy today but there is great doubt concerning tomorrow then there is a worm at the root of your peace. Whatever great tribulation you perceive lies ahead rest assured that glory lies at their end. Battles are for sure but the eye of faith perceives a crown of victory. Surely deep waters await us and even more assuredly is Christ who will carry us to the other side.

Work these truths into our hearts we then find themselves working their way into our lives.

Beloved, these truths are but tributaries of joy but they are by no means the great depths of joy. These tributaries are not shallow but they are not the abyss of delight that a Christian can experience as the fellowship with their Father. Beloved, when your doctrine moves from the theoretical to the experiential then your joy will overflow like the Jordan River at harvest time. For those united with the author and source of joy will experience joy unspeakable and full of glory. When those united in Christ begin to communion with Christ they can experience joy in the arena of affliction, in the solitude of a sleepless night, in the depths of discouragement, in all sorts of sorrows, and in the intensity of our ills. If this is not your experience then I ask you; are you united to Christ? Are you communing with Christ? Our great enemy cannot separate our union with Christ for it is sure. However, he can sever our communion with Christ. When communion is severed joy seems impossible. Let us sing our way back to communion with Christ with such words as these

that us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchan geable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However As

happy I may be today, if I am in doubt concerning tomorrow, there is a worm at the root of my peace. Although the past may now be sweet in retrospect, and the present fair in enjoyment, yet if the future is grim with fear, my joy is but shallow. If my salvation is still a matter of hazard and jeopardy, unmingled joy is not mine, and deep peace is still out of my reach; but when I know that He whom I have rested in has power and grace enough to complete that which He has begun in me, and for me; when I see the work of Christ to be no half-redemption, but a complete and eternal salvation; when I perceive that the promises are established upon an unchangeable basis, and are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, ratified by oath and sealed by blood, then my soul has perfect contentment! It is true, that looking forward there may be seen long avenues of tribulation, but the glory is at the end of them. Battles may be foreseen, and woe unto the man who does not expect them, but the eye of faith perceives the crown of victory. Deep waters are mapped upon our journey, but faith can see Jehovah fording these rivers with us, and she anticipates the day when we shall ascend the banks of the shore, and enter into Jehovah’s rest; when we have received these priceless truths of God into our souls, we are satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word What a glory he sheds on our way!

While we do His good will, He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,

But His msile quicly drive it away;

Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,

Can abide while we trust and obey.

Trust and obey for there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Beloved, trust me when I tell you one swig of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation. Jesus illustrated communion in this way,

John 15:4 ESV

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Those who abide bear. Bear what? Fruit.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:

The habit of communion is the life of happiness!

Now, beloved, I have not yet taken you into the great deeps of joy, though these streams are certainly, by no means, shallow; there is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God. I spoke of the truth that God loved us and the fact that we are related to Him by ties most near and dear; but, oh, when these doctrines become experiences, then are we, indeed, anointed with the oil of gladness! Then we enter into the love of God, and it enters into us; when we walk with God habitually, then our joy is like Jordan at harvest time, when it overflows all its banks. Do you know what it means to walk with God—Enoch’s joy; to sit at Jesus’ feet—Mary’s joy; to lean your head upon Jesus’ bosom—John’s familiar joy? Oh yes, communion with the Lord is no mere talk with some of us; we have known it in the chamber of affliction; we have known it in the solitude of many a night of broken rest; we have known it beneath discouragements, and under sorrows and defamations, and all sorts of ills; and we reckon that one dram of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation! Only to know that He is near us, and to see the gleaming of His dear eyes, would transform even hell, itself, into heaven, if it were possible for us to enjoy His presence there! Alas, you do not and cannot know this bliss, you who drink your foaming bowls. Listening to the sound of stringed instruments, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 4 4 you do not know what this bliss means; you have not dreamed of it, nor could you understand it though a man should show it to you. As the beast in the meadow knows not the far-reaching thoughts of him who reads the stars, and threads the spheres, so neither can the carnal man make so much as a guess of what are the joys which God has prepared for those who love Him, which any day and everyday, when our hearts seek it, He reveals to us by His Spirit! This is “The joy of the Lord”—fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we reach this point, we must labor to maintain our standing, for our Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people oglad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

“The joy of the Lord” can be experienced everyday as we serve Him. Our service is not because God is in need for need is a creature word. Our service is not reimbursement for our redemption. We serve because a heart that has experienced grace can do nothing else. When we experience the riches of His grace we must serve or we will burst. Serving allows us to express our joy and it allows us to expand our joy. The more we serve the greater our capacity for joy. A non-serving Christian is a stagnant and anyone who is stagnant will begin to stink. Our Father commands us to serve for in it that command we find our highest joy. Christ served! Has there existed one more joyful than he?

Psalm 100:2 ESV

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people oglad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

The

The Hebrew word for serve is also translated worship. Serving is worshipping and worshipping is serving.

You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.”

The offensiveness of Joy

What good is biblical knowledge if it is store on a shelf in ones mind collecting dust. Our Father has commanded us to be conveyors of content not collectors. Joyful Christian’s feast on the content of Scripture as spiritual meat.

Hebrews 5:12 ESV

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,

As we contemplate the great truths of Scripture in our minds we begin to to extract joy as well as strength. This heavenly exercise is as much strengthening as exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy verve indicates spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself!

“The joy of the Lord” fortifies us against temptation.

Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God

What can a man walking in the joy of the Lord be tempted with? His joy is already more than the sum total of what the world could offer. He cannot be overtaken by the joy offered in riches. He cannot be seduced by the joy offered by pleasure. His joy strengthens him against such temptations.

“The joy of the Lord” fortifies us in our trials.

He is like his Savior in

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God

He lifts his voice with James, the half-brother of Jesus, in

James 1:2–4 ESV

James 1:2–8 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Trials are not meant to steal our joy but to strengthen our joy thereby giving us greater strength.

When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God

A joyous man is a strong man. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; his strength is not pretentious but real.

The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause.

The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up.

He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause.

where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause.

Observe the practical results

Nehemiah 12:42–43 ESV

and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

It leads to great praise.

First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised!

“The singers sang aloud,” their worship was hearty and enthusiastic; worship is not a minor matter. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and,

I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised!

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and,

Psalm 50:23 ESV

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Let us once again become eager to sing congregational concert. Let the church be warned of attaching itself to the professional musician. It is a horrible plight that the church falls into when those on the stage are nothing but mere proxies for the congregation. Can it be called worship when in many cases less than a tenth of congregants can be found singing. Some may argue that they sing in a low volume as not to bother the one beside them. To those individuals I say away with your mumbling praise and let your voice soar into the heights of heaven. Your volume will be as strong as your joy

Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain!

It not only leads to great praise.

It leads to great sacrifice.

Our Heavenly Father rejoices greatly in our sacrificial giving. Our giving fills no need in our Father but in us. Our Father expects us to give because He has attached our highest joy to it. Whatever good your giving may do for the church, the poor, or the needy, it is of twice as much benefit to you the giver. When we give we reflect the Father. Our Father is a giver and He expects His children to be likewise. We purchase roses and place them in our houses not for their beauty alone but for their fragrance. Roses were created to be natures perfume. A rose never considers doing anything but pouring out fragrance because it is what it is. A Christian not living sacrificially is as contrary as a rose with no fragrance.

Furthermore, our sacrifice is not really as sacrifical as we might think. Listen to the Lord himself concerning His response to our sacrifice.

Malachi 3:10 ESV

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

walk through a rose garden the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

It leads to family joy.

The text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.”

It leads others to joy.

“The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people glad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary!

THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE WITHIN OUR REACH!

Neh

Nehemiah 12:43 ESV

And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

“For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another.

“For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” This joy of which we have preached can only come from God alone! Therefore, it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you.

What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers.

Nehemiah 8:3 ESV

And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

Nehemiah 8:3 ESV

They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! When they heard it they felt its power and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly.

Nehemiah 8:3 ESV

NehThey were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! When they heard it they felt its power and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly.

They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of boring Sundays. Adoration helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne will be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire!

Nehemiah 8:6 ESV

And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Adoration helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard.

Nehemiah 8:8 ESV

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. Beloved, you ought to pursue understanding in all that you that you sing, in all that you are praying, in all that you are reading. It is this pursuit of understanding that will lead you to great joy.

Beloved, you ought to pursue understanding in all that you that you sing, in all that you are praying, in all that you are reading. It is this pursuit of understanding that will lead you to great joy.

Once the people of God understood what they heard they were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten.

Nehemiah 8:13–18 ESV

On the second day the heads of fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, came together to Ezra the scribe in order to study the words of the Law. And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing. And day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.

At the foothills of Mount Moriah, down below in the City of David, flows a natural spring called Shiloach. This spring is ancient, and as it is located literally in the shadow of the Holy Temple, it has always had spiritual significance for Israel. It is the original source of Jerusalem’s water. Every day of the festival [i.e. of Taberncales], the priests descended down to the Shiloach, accompanied by all the congregation assembled in the Temple. There, they filled a golden flask … of the pure water. Ascending back up, carrying the flask with song … the gathering entered back into the Temple through the Water Gate, one of the gates on the southern side of the court (it received its name on account of this event (Shekalim 6, 3). As they entered the gate, their steps were greeted by the sound of trumpets and shofar-blasts, …

Nehemiah 8:13-1What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

If however, a man comes, and I pray you all may, to live habitually under a sense of pardon through the sprinkling of the precious blood, and in a delightful sense of perfect reconciliation with the great God, he is the possessor of an unspeakable joy and full of glory! But, beloved this is not all. The joy of the Lord in the spirit springs also from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by divine goodness. Being children of God, the love of God towards us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchangeable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However happy I may be today, if I am in doubt concerning tomorrow, there is a worm at the root of my peace. Although the past may now be sweet in retrospect, and the present fair in enjoyment, yet if the future is grim with fear, my joy is but shallow. If my salvation is still a matter of hazard and jeopardy, unmingled joy is not mine, and deep peace is still out of my reach; but when I know that He whom I have rested in has power and grace enough to complete that which He has begun in me, and for me; when I see the work of Christ to be no half-redemption, but a complete and eternal salvation; when I perceive that the promises are established upon an unchangeable basis, and are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, ratified by oath and sealed by blood, then my soul has perfect contentment! It is true, that looking forward there may be seen long avenues of tribulation, but the glory is at the end of them. Battles may be foreseen, and woe unto the man who does not expect them, but the eye of faith perceives the crown of victory. Deep waters are mapped upon our journey, but faith can see Jehovah fording these rivers with us, and she anticipates the day when we shall ascend the banks of the shore, and enter into Jehovah’s rest; when we have received these priceless truths of God into our souls, we are satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord. There is a theology which denies to believers this consolation; we will not enter into controversy with it, but sorrowfully hint that a heavy chastisement for the errors of that system of doctrine lies in the loss of the comfort which the truth would have brought into the soul. For my part, I value the gospel not only for what it has done for me in the past, but for the guarantees which it affords me of eternal salvation. “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck then out of My hand.” Now, beloved, I have not yet taken you into the great deeps of joy, though these streams are certainly, by no means, shallow; there is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God. I spoke of the truth that God loved us and the fact that we are related to Him by ties most near and dear; but, oh, when these doctrines become experiences, then are we, indeed, anointed with the oil of gladness! Then we enter into the love of God, and it enters into us; when we walk with God habitually, then our joy is like Jordan at harvest time, when it overflows all its banks. Do you know what it means to walk with God—Enoch’s joy; to sit at Jesus’ feet—Mary’s joy; to lean your head upon Jesus’ bosom—John’s familiar joy? Oh yes, communion with the Lord is no mere talk with some of us; we have known it in the chamber of affliction; we have known it in the solitude of many a night of broken rest; we have known it beneath discouragements, and under sorrows and defamations, and all sorts of ills; and we reckon that one dram of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation! Only to know that He is near us, and to see the gleaming of His dear eyes, would transform even hell, itself, into heaven, if it were possible for us to enjoy His presence there! Alas, you do not and cannot know this bliss, you who drink your foaming bowls. Listening to the sound of stringed instruments, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 4 4 you do not know what this bliss means; you have not dreamed of it, nor could you understand it though a man should show it to you. As the beast in the meadow knows not the far-reaching thoughts of him who reads the stars, and threads the spheres, so neither can the carnal man make so much as a guess of what are the joys which God has prepared for those who love Him, which any day and everyday, when our hearts seek it, He reveals to us by His Spirit! This is “The joy of the Lord”—fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we reach this point, we must labor to maintain our standing, for our Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people oglad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

Hsuing us with a drawn sword, but a loving Father into whose bosom we pour our sorrows, and find ease for every pang of heart. Oh, to know, belovemetd, that God actually loves us! I have often told you I cannot preach upon that theme, for it is a subject to muse upon in silence—a matter to sit by the hour together and meditate upon. The infinite to love an insignificant creature, a shadow that declines! Is not this a marvel? For God to pity me I can understand; for God to condescend to have mercy upon me I can comprehend; but for Him to love me? For the pure to love a sinner; for the infinitely great to love a worm— is matchless, a miracle of miracles! Such thoughts must comfort the soul; and then, add to this that the divine love has brought us believers into actual relationship with God, so that we are His sons and Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 3 3 daughters; this, again, is a river of sacred pleasure! “Unto which of the angels said He at any time, you are My son”? No minister of flame, though perfect in obedience, has received the honor of adoption! To us, even to us frail creatures of the dust, is given a benefit denied to Gabriel, for through Jesus Christ the first-born, we are members of the family of God! Oh, the abyss of joy which lies in sonship with God, and joint heirship with Christ! Words are vain here. Moreover, the joy springing from the spirit of adoption is another portion of the believer’s bliss. He cannot be an unhappy man who can cry, “Abba, Father.” The spirit of adoption is always attended by love, joy, and peace, which are fruits of the Spirit, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of liberty and joy in Christ Jesus. “My God, my Father.” Oh how sweet the sound! But all men of God do not enjoy this, you say. Alas, we grant it, but we also add that it is their own fault. It is the right and portion of every believer to live in the assurance that he is reconciled to God, that God loves him, and that he is God’s child; and if he does not so live, he has himself to blame; if there are any starving at God’s table, it is because the guest stints himself, for the feast is superabundant. If however, a man comes, and I pray you all may, to live habitually under a sense of pardon through the sprinkling of the precious blood, and in a delightful sense of perfect reconciliation with the great God, he is the possessor of an unspeakable joy and full of glory! But, beloved this is not all. The joy of the Lord in the spirit springs also from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by divine goodness. Being children of God, the love of God towards us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchangeable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However happy I may be today, if I am in doubt concerning tomorrow, there is a worm at the root of my peace. Although the past may now be sweet in retrospect, and the present fair in enjoyment, yet if the future is grim with fear, my joy is but shallow. If my salvation is still a matter of hazard and jeopardy, unmingled joy is not mine, and deep peace is still out of my reach; but when I know that He whom I have rested in has power and grace enough to complete that which He has begun in me, and for me; when I see the work of Christ to be no half-redemption, but a complete and eternal salvation; when I perceive that the promises are established upon an unchangeable basis, and are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, ratified by oath and sealed by blood, then my soul has perfect contentment! It is true, that looking forward there may be seen long avenues of tribulation, but the glory is at the end of them. Battles may be foreseen, and woe unto the man who does not expect them, but the eye of faith perceives the crown of victory. Deep waters are mapped upon our journey, but faith can see Jehovah fording these rivers with us, and she anticipates the day when we shall ascend the banks of the shore, and enter into Jehovah’s rest; when we have received these priceless truths of God into our souls, we are satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord. There is a theology which denies to believers this consolation; we will not enter into controversy with it, but sorrowfully hint that a heavy chastisement for the errors of that system of doctrine lies in the loss of the comfort which the truth would have brought into the soul. For my part, I value the gospel not only for what it has done for me in the past, but for the guarantees which it affords me of eternal salvation. “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck then out of My hand.” Now, beloved, I have not yet taken you into the great deeps of joy, though these streams are certainly, by no means, shallow; there is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God. I spoke of the truth that God loved us and the fact that we are related to Him by ties most near and dear; but, oh, when these doctrines become experiences, then are we, indeed, anointed with the oil of gladness! Then we enter into the love of God, and it enters into us; when we walk with God habitually, then our joy is like Jordan at harvest time, when it overflows all its banks. Do you know what it means to walk with God—Enoch’s joy; to sit at Jesus’ feet—Mary’s joy; to lean your head upon Jesus’ bosom—John’s familiar joy? Oh yes, communion with the Lord is no mere talk with some of us; we have known it in the chamber of affliction; we have known it in the solitude of many a night of broken rest; we have known it beneath discouragements, and under sorrows and defamations, and all sorts of ills; and we reckon that one dram of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation! Only to know that He is near us, and to see the gleaming of His dear eyes, would transform even hell, itself, into heaven, if it were possible for us to enjoy His presence there! Alas, you do not and cannot know this bliss, you who drink your foaming bowls. Listening to the sound of stringed instruments, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 4 4 you do not know what this bliss means; you have not dreamed of it, nor could you understand it though a man should show it to you. As the beast in the meadow knows not the far-reaching thoughts of him who reads the stars, and threads the spheres, so neither can the carnal man make so much as a guess of what are the joys which God has prepared for those who love Him, which any day and everyday, when our hearts seek it, He reveals to us by His Spirit! This is “The joy of the Lord”—fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we reach this point, we must labor to maintain our standing, for our Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people oglad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

How sweet is it to think over all the Lord has done—how He has revealed Himself of old, and especially how He has displayed His glory in the covenant of grace, and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ! How charming is the thought that He has revealed Himself to me personally, and made me to see in Him my Father, my friend, my helper, my God! Oh, if there is one word out of heaven that cannot be excelled, even by the brightness of heaven itself, it is this word, “My God, my Father,” and that sweet promise, “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” There is no richer consolation to be found; even the Spirit of God can bring nothing home to the heart of the Christian more fraught with delight than that blessed consideration! When the child of God, after admiring the character and wondering at the acts of God, can all the while feel, “He is my God; I have taken Him to be mine; He has taken me to be His; He has grasped me with the hand of His powerful love, having loved me with an everlasting love, with the bands of lovingkindness has He drawn me to Himself’ my beloved is mine, and I am His”—why, then, his soul would gladly dance like David before the ark of the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord with all its might! A further source of joy is found by the Christian who is living near to God in a deep sense of reconciliation to God, of acceptance with God, and yet, beyond that, of adoption and close relationship to God. Does it not make a man glad to know that though once his sins had provoked the Lord, they are all blotted out, and not one of them remains; though once he was estranged from God, and far off from Him by wicked works, yet he is made near by the blood of Christ? The Lord is no longer an angry Judge pursuing us with a drawn sword, but a loving Father into whose bosom we pour our sorrows, and find ease for every pang of heart. Oh, to know, beloved, that God actually loves us! I have often told you I cannot preach upon that theme, for it is a subject to muse upon in silence—a matter to sit by the hour together and meditate upon. The infinite to love an insignificant creature, a shadow that declines! Is not this a marvel? For God to pity me I can understand; for God to condescend to have mercy upon me I can comprehend; but for Him to love me? For the pure to love a sinner; for the infinitely great to love a worm— is matchless, a miracle of miracles! Such thoughts must comfort the soul; and then, add to this that the divine love has brought us believers into actual relationship with God, so that we are His sons and Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 3 3 daughters; this, again, is a river of sacred pleasure! “Unto which of the angels said He at any time, you are My son”? No minister of flame, though perfect in obedience, has received the honor of adoption! To us, even to us frail creatures of the dust, is given a benefit denied to Gabriel, for through Jesus Christ the first-born, we are members of the family of God! Oh, the abyss of joy which lies in sonship with God, and joint heirship with Christ! Words are vain here. Moreover, the joy springing from the spirit of adoption is another portion of the believer’s bliss. He cannot be an unhappy man who can cry, “Abba, Father.” The spirit of adoption is always attended by love, joy, and peace, which are fruits of the Spirit, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of liberty and joy in Christ Jesus. “My God, my Father.” Oh how sweet the sound! But all men of God do not enjoy this, you say. Alas, we grant it, but we also add that it is their own fault. It is the right and portion of every believer to live in the assurance that he is reconciled to God, that God loves him, and that he is God’s child; and if he does not so live, he has himself to blame; if there are any starving at God’s table, it is because the guest stints himself, for the feast is superabundant. If however, a man comes, and I pray you all may, to live habitually under a sense of pardon through the sprinkling of the precious blood, and in a delightful sense of perfect reconciliation with the great God, he is the possessor of an unspeakable joy and full of glory! But, beloved this is not all. The joy of the Lord in the spirit springs also from an assurance that all the future, whatever it may be, is guaranteed by divine goodness. Being children of God, the love of God towards us is not of a mutable character, but abides and remains unchangeable. The believer feels an entire satisfaction in leaving himself in the hands of eternal and Immutable love. However happy I may be today, if I am in doubt concerning tomorrow, there is a worm at the root of my peace. Although the past may now be sweet in retrospect, and the present fair in enjoyment, yet if the future is grim with fear, my joy is but shallow. If my salvation is still a matter of hazard and jeopardy, unmingled joy is not mine, and deep peace is still out of my reach; but when I know that He whom I have rested in has power and grace enough to complete that which He has begun in me, and for me; when I see the work of Christ to be no half-redemption, but a complete and eternal salvation; when I perceive that the promises are established upon an unchangeable basis, and are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, ratified by oath and sealed by blood, then my soul has perfect contentment! It is true, that looking forward there may be seen long avenues of tribulation, but the glory is at the end of them. Battles may be foreseen, and woe unto the man who does not expect them, but the eye of faith perceives the crown of victory. Deep waters are mapped upon our journey, but faith can see Jehovah fording these rivers with us, and she anticipates the day when we shall ascend the banks of the shore, and enter into Jehovah’s rest; when we have received these priceless truths of God into our souls, we are satisfied with favor and full of the goodness of the Lord. There is a theology which denies to believers this consolation; we will not enter into controversy with it, but sorrowfully hint that a heavy chastisement for the errors of that system of doctrine lies in the loss of the comfort which the truth would have brought into the soul. For my part, I value the gospel not only for what it has done for me in the past, but for the guarantees which it affords me of eternal salvation. “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck then out of My hand.” Now, beloved, I have not yet taken you into the great deeps of joy, though these streams are certainly, by no means, shallow; there is an abyss of delight for every Christian when he comes into actual fellowship with God. I spoke of the truth that God loved us and the fact that we are related to Him by ties most near and dear; but, oh, when these doctrines become experiences, then are we, indeed, anointed with the oil of gladness! Then we enter into the love of God, and it enters into us; when we walk with God habitually, then our joy is like Jordan at harvest time, when it overflows all its banks. Do you know what it means to walk with God—Enoch’s joy; to sit at Jesus’ feet—Mary’s joy; to lean your head upon Jesus’ bosom—John’s familiar joy? Oh yes, communion with the Lord is no mere talk with some of us; we have known it in the chamber of affliction; we have known it in the solitude of many a night of broken rest; we have known it beneath discouragements, and under sorrows and defamations, and all sorts of ills; and we reckon that one dram of fellowship with Christ is enough to sweeten an ocean full of tribulation! Only to know that He is near us, and to see the gleaming of His dear eyes, would transform even hell, itself, into heaven, if it were possible for us to enjoy His presence there! Alas, you do not and cannot know this bliss, you who drink your foaming bowls. Listening to the sound of stringed instruments, The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 4 4 you do not know what this bliss means; you have not dreamed of it, nor could you understand it though a man should show it to you. As the beast in the meadow knows not the far-reaching thoughts of him who reads the stars, and threads the spheres, so neither can the carnal man make so much as a guess of what are the joys which God has prepared for those who love Him, which any day and everyday, when our hearts seek it, He reveals to us by His Spirit! This is “The joy of the Lord”—fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Beloved, if we reach this point, we must labor to maintain our standing, for our Lord says to us, “Abide in Me.” The habit of communion is the life of happiness! Another form of “The joy of the Lord” will visit us practically everyday in the honor of being allowed to serve Him. It is a joy worth worlds to be allowed to do good; to teach a little child his letters, for Christ will give a true heart some taste of the joy of the Lord, if it is consciously done for the Lord’s sake alone; to bear the portion to those for whom nothing is prepared; to visit the sick, to comfort the mourner, to aid the poor, to instruct the ignorant; any, and all of such Christian works, if done in Jesus’ name, will in their measure array us in Jehovah’s joy! And happy are we, brothers and sisters, if when we cannot work, we are enabled to lie still and suffer, for passive assent is another silver pipe through which “The joy of the Lord” will come to us! It is sweet to smart beneath God’s rod, and feel that if God would have us suffer, it is happiness to do so; to fall back with the faintness of nature, but at the same time with the strength of grace, and say, “Your will be done.” It is joy, when between millstones crushed like an olive, to yield nothing but the oil of thankfulness; when bruised beneath the flail of tribulation, still to lose nothing but the chaff; and to yield to God the precious grain of entire submissiveness! Why, this is a little heaven upon earth! To glory in tribulations, also, this is a high degree of climbing up towards the likeness of our Lord. Perhaps the usual communions which we have with our beloved, though exceedingly precious, will never equal those which we enjoy when we have to break through thorns and briars to be at Him. When we follow Him into the wilderness, then we feel the love of our espousals to be doubly sweet; it is a joyous thing when in the midst of mournful circumstances, we yet feel that we cannot mourn because the bridegroom is with us; blessed is that man, who, in the most terrible storm, is driven not from his God, but even rides upon the crest of the lofty billows nearer heaven! Such happiness is the Christian’s lot; I do not say that every Christian possesses it, but I am sure that every Christian ought to do so. There is a highway to heaven, and all in it are safe; but in the middle of that road there is a special way, an inner path, and all who walk it are happy, as well as safe. Many professors are only just within the hedge; they walk in the ditch by the road side, and because they are safe there, they are content to put up with all the inconveniences of their walk. But he who takes the crown of the causeway, and walks in the very center of the road that God has cast up shall find that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up, for there the Lord Himself shall be his companion, and will manifest Himself to him. You shallow Christians who do but believe in Christ, and barely that; whose Bibles are unread; whose prayer closets are unfrequented; whose communion with God is a thing of spasms—you have not the joy of the Lord; neither are you strong. I beseech you, rest not as you are, but let your conscious feebleness provoke you to seek the means of strength; and that means of strength is to be found in a pleasant medicine, sweet as it is profitable—the delicious and effectual medicine of “the joy of the Lord.” II. But time would fail me to prolong our remarks upon this very fruitful subject, and we shall turn to our second head, which is this—that THIS JOY IS A SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH. Very rapidly let us consider this thought; it is so because this joy arises from considerations which always strengthen the soul. Very much of the depth of our piety will depend upon our thoughtfulness; many persons, after having received a doctrine, put it away on a shelf; they are orthodox, they have received the truth of God, and they are content to keep that truth on hand as dead stock. Sirs, of what account can this be to you, to store your garners with wheat if you never grind the wheat for bread, or sow it in the furrows of your fields? He is the joyful Christian who uses the doctrines of the gospel for spiritual meat as they were meant to be used! Why, some men might as well have a heterodox creed as an orthodox one, for all the difference it makes to them; having the notion that they know, and imagining that to know suffices them, they do not consider, contemplate, or regard the truths which they profess to believe, and, consequently, they derive no benefit from them. Now, to contemplate the great truths of divine election, of eternal love, of covenant engagements, of justification by faith through the blood of Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 5 5 Christ, and the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Spirit in His people; to turn over these things is to extract joy from them, and this also is strengthening to the mind! To press the heavenly grapes by meditation, and make the red wine flow forth in torrents is an exercise as strengthening as it is exhilarating. Joy comes from the same truths which support our strength, and comes by the process of meditation. Again, “The joy of the Lord” within us is always the sign and symbol of strong spiritual life. Holy vivacity betokens spiritual vigor. I said that he who had spiritual joy gained it by communion with God, and communion with God is the surest fosterer of strength. You cannot be with a strong God without getting strength yourself, for God is always a transforming God! Regarding and looking upon Him, our likeness changes till we become in our measure like our God. The warmth of the South of France, of which you often hear so much, does not spring from soft balmy winds, but from the sun; at sunset the temperature falls. You shall be on one side of the street in Italy, and think it May; cross the street into the shade, and it is cold as January. The sun does it all. A man who walks in the sunlight of God’s countenance, for that very reason is warm and strong; the sunlight of joy usually goes with the warmth of spiritual life. As the light of joy varies, so does the warmth of holy strength; he who dwells in the light of God is both happy and strong; he who goes into the shade, and loses the joy of the Lord, becomes weak at the same time; and so the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, as being an indicator of its rise or fall. When a soul is really vigorous and active, it is like the torrent which dashes down the mountain side, which scorns in winter to acknowledge the bonds of frost; in a few hours the stagnant pools and slowly moving streams are enchained in ice. But the snow king must bring forth all his strength before he can manacle the rushing torrent; so when a soul dashes on with the sacred force of faith, it is hard to freeze it into misery, its vigor secures its joy! Furthermore, the man who possesses “the joy of the Lord,” finds it his strength in another respect, that it fortifies him against temptation. What is there that he can be tempted with? He has more already than the world can offer him as a reward for treachery; he is already rich; who shall ensnare him with the wages of unrighteousness? He is already satisfied; who is he that can seduce him with pleasing baits? “Shall such a man as I flee?” The rejoicing Christian is equally safe against persecution; they may well afford to be laughed at who win at such a rate as he does. “You may scoff,” he says, “but I know what true religion is within my soul, and your scoffing will not make me relinquish the pearl of great price.” Such a man is also made strong to bear affliction, for all the sufferings put upon him are but a few drops of bitterness cast into his cup of bliss to give a deeper tone to the sweetness which absorbs them! Such a man becomes strong for service, too; what can he not do who is happy in his God? By his God he leaps over a hill, or breaks through a troop! Strong is he, too, for any kind of self-sacrifice. To the God who gives him all, and remains to him as his perpetual portion, such a man gives up all that he has, and thinks it no surrender; it is but laying up his treasure in his own peculiar treasure house, even in the God of his salvation! A joyous man, such as I have now in my mind’s eye, is to all intents and purposes a strong man; he is strong in a calm, restful manner; whatever happens he is not ruffled or disturbed; he is not afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. The ruffled man is always weak; he is in a hurry, and does things ill. The man full of joy within is quiet; he bides his time and crouches in the fullness of his strength. Such a man, though he is humble, is firm and steadfast; he is not carried away with every wind, or bowed by every breeze; he knows what he knows, and holds what he holds; and the golden anchor of his hope enters within the veil, and holds him fast; his strength is not pretentious but real. The happiness arising from communion with God breeds in him no boastfulness; he does not talk of what he can do—he does it! He does not say what he could bear, but he bears all that comes; he does not always know what he can do—his weakness is the more apparent to himself because of the strength which the Holy Spirit puts upon him. But when the time comes, his weakness only illustrates the divine might, while the man goes calmly on, conquering and to conquer. His inner light makes him independent of the outward sun; his secret granaries make him independent of the outer harvest; his inward fountains place him beyond dread though the brook Cherith may dry up. He is independent of men and angels, and fearless of devils; all creatures may turn against him if they please, but since God is his exceeding joy, he will not miss their love or mourn their hate! He stands where others fall; he sings where others weep; he wins where others flee; he glorifies his God The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 6 6 where others bring dishonor on themselves, and on the sacred name. God grant us the inward joy which arises from real strength, and is so linked with it as to be in part its cause. III. But now I must hasten on to notice in the third place that THIS STRENGTH LEADS TO PRACTICAL RESULTS. I am sure I shall have your earnest attention to this, because in many of you I have seen the results follow of which I now speak. I would not flatter anyone, but my heart has been full of thanksgiving to the God of all grace when I have seen many of you rejoicing in the Lord under painful circumstances, and producing the fruits of a gracious strength. Turn then to our second text, and there you shall observe some of the fruits of holy joy and pious strength. First, it leads to great praise. “The singers sang aloud,” their minstrelsy was hearty and enthusiastic; sacred song is not a minor matter. Quaint George Herbert has said— “Praying’s the end of preaching.” Might he not have gone further, and have said, praising’s the end of praying? After all, preaching and praying are not the chief end of man, but the glorifying of God, of which praising God vocally is one form. Preaching is sowing, prayer is watering, but praise is the harvest. God aims at His own glory; so should we, and, “Who so offers praise glorifies Me, says the Lord.” Be you diligent, then, to sing His praises with understanding. We have put away harps and trumpets and organs; let us mind that we really rise above the need of them. I think we do well to dispense with these helps of the typical dispensation; they are all inferior, even in music, to the human voice; there is assuredly no melody or harmony like those created by living tongues. But let us mind that we do not put away an atom of the joy! Let us be glad when in the congregation we unite in psalmody. It is a wretched thing to hear the praises of God rendered professionally, as if the mere music were everything; it is horrible to have a dozen people in the table pew singing for you, as if they were proxies for the whole assembly! It is shocking to me to be present in places of worship where not a tenth of the people ever venture to sing at all, and these do it through their teeth so very softly, that one had need to have a microscope invented for his ears to enable him to hear the dying strain! Away with such mumbling and murdering of the praises of God! If men’s hearts were joyous and strong, they would scorn such miserable worship! In this house we all try to sing, but might we not have more praise services? We have had a praise meeting every now and then; ought we not to hold a praise meeting every week? Should not the prayer meeting be more than ever cheered by praise? The singing of God’s people should be, and if they were fuller of divine strength would be, more constant and universal. How sinners chant the praise of Bacchus in the streets! You can hardly rest in the middle of the night, but what unseemly sounds of revelry startle you. Shall the votaries of wine sing so lustily, and shall we be silent? We are not often guilty of disturbing the world with our music; the days in which Christian zeal interfered with the wicked seems to have gone by; we have settled down into more orderliness, and I am afraid also into more lukewarmness. Oh for the old Methodist shout! Brothers and sisters, wake up your singing again! May the Lord give us again a singing time, and make us all praise Him with heart, and with voice, till even the adversaries shall say, “The Lord has done great things for them.” And we shall reply, “Yes, you speak the truth; He has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Perhaps there has not been so large a blessing upon the churches of England because they have not rendered due thanksgiving. In all the time in which we are in trouble we are anxious and prayerful; when a prince is sick, bulletins are issued every hour or so, but ah, when the mercy comes, very few bulletins are put out calling upon us to bless and praise the name of God for His mercies! Let us praise the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, for great is the Lord, and greatly is He to be praised! The next result is great sacrifice. “That day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced.” What day is that in which the church of God now makes great sacrifices? I have not seen it in the calendar of late. And, alas, if men make any sacrifice, they very often do so in a mode which indicates that they would escape the inflection if they could! Few make great sacrifices and rejoice; you can persuade a man to give a considerable sum; a great many arguments at last overcome him, and he does it because he would have been ashamed not to do it, but in his heart he wishes you had not come that way, and had gone to some other donor. That is the most acceptable gift to God which is given rejoicingly; it is well to feel that whatever good your gift may do to the church, or the poor, or the sick, it is twice as much benefit to you to give it. It is well to give because you love to give; as the flower which pours forth its perfume because it never dreamed of doing otherwise; or like the bird which quivers with song, because it is a bird, Sermon #1027 The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Volume 17 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. 7 7 and finds a pleasure in its notes; or like the sun which shines, not by force, but because, being a sun, it must shine; or like the waves of the sea which flash back the brilliance of the sun, because it is their nature to reflect, and not to hoard the light! Oh, to have such grace in our hearts that we shall joyfully make sacrifices unto our God! The Lord grant that we may have much of this, for the bringing of the tithes into the storehouse is the way to the blessing. As says the Scripture: “Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house, and prove Me now, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Next to that, there are sure to follow other expressions of joy. They “rejoiced, for God had made them to rejoice with great joy.” It was not all singing and giving; when the wheels of the machine are well oiled, the whole machine goes easily, and when the man has the oil of joy, then in his business, and in his family the wheels of his nature glide along sweetly and harmoniously, because he is a glad and a happy man. There are some professors who imagine the sorrow of the Lord to be their strength; they glory in the spirit of bondage, and in an unbelieving experience; having great acquaintance with the corruption of their hearts, sometimes of a rather too practical character. They make the deformities of the saints to be their beauty spots, and their faults to be their evidences. Such men denounce all who rejoice in the Lord, and only tolerate the unbelieving. Their strength lies in being able to take you through all the catacombs of nature’s darkness, and to show you the rottenness of their evil hearts. Well, such strength as that let those have who will, but we are persuaded that our text is nearer to wisdom—“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” While we know something of our corruption, and mourn it; while we know something of the world’s troubles, and sometimes lament as we bear them, yet there is a joy in the perfect work of Christ, and a joy in our union to Him which uplifts us far above all other considerations! God becomes to us such strength, that we cannot help showing our joy in our ordinary life. But then the text tells us that holy joy leads to family happiness. “The wives also, and the children rejoiced.” It is so in this church. I have lately seen several children from households which God has blessed, and I have rejoiced to see that father and mother know the Lord, and that even the last of the family has been brought to Jesus. O happy households where the joy is not confined to one, but where all partake of it! I dislike much that Christianity which makes a man feel, “If I go to heaven it is all I care for.” Why, you are like a German stove which I found in the room of an hotel the other day; a kind of stove which required all the wood they could bring up merely to warm itself, and then all the heat went up the chimney. We sat around it to make it warm, but scarce a particle of heat came forth from it to us. Too many need all the religion they can get to cheer their own hearts, and their poor families and neighbors sit shivering in the cold of ungodliness. Be like those well constructed stoves of our own houses, which send out all the heat into the room; send out the heat of piety into your house, and let all the neighbors participate in the blessing, for so the text finishes, “The joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.” The joy of the Lord should be observed throughout our neighborhood, and many who might otherwise have been careless of true religion will then inquire, “What makes these people glad, and creates such happy households?” Your joy shall thus be God’s missionary! IV. And now I have to close. THIS JOY, THIS STRENGTH ARE BOTH WITHIN OUR REACH! “For the Lord had made them glad with great joy.” God alone can give us this great joy! Then it is within the reach of any, for God can give it to one as well as to another; if it depended upon our good works or our natural abilities, some of us could never reach it; but if God is the source and giver of it, He may give it to me as well as to you, my brother, my sister, and to you as well as to another. What was the way in which God gave this joy? Well first, He gave it to these people by their being attentive hearers. They were not only hearers, but they heard with their ears; their ears were into the word; it was read to them, and they sucked it in, receiving it into their souls. An attentive hearer is on the way to being a joyous receiver! Having heard it, they felt the power of it, and they wept. Did that seem the way to joy? It was! They received the threats of the law with all their terrors into their souls; they allowed the hammer of the word to break them in pieces; they submitted themselves to the word of reproof. Oh, that God would incline you all to do the same, for this, again, is the way in which God gives joy! The word is heard, the word is felt; then after this, when they had felt the power of the word, we see that they worshipped God devoutly. They bowed the head; their postures indicated what they felt within; worshippers with penitent hearts really adore God; they will never complain of weary Sundays. Adora- The Joy of the Lord, the Strength of His People Sermon #1027 Tell someone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 17 8 8 tion helps us into joy; he who can bow low enough before the throne shall be lifted as high before that Throne as his heart can desire! We read, also, that these hearers and worshippers understood clearly what they heard. Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there is a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it; Bible reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter—pray the Holy Spirit to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning! Ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship, and come into living adoration? Sometimes, for all the true singing that there is, the song might as well be in Latin or in Greek. Oh, to know what you are singing, to know what you are saying in prayer, to know what you are reading, to get at it, to come right into it, to understand it—this is the way to holy joy. And one other point; these people, when they had understood what they had devoutly heard, were eager to obey. They obeyed not only the common points of the law in which Israel of old had furnished them with examples, but they found out an old institution which had been buried and forgotten. What was that to them? God had commanded it, and they celebrated it, and in so doing, this peculiar joy came upon them. Oh, for the time when all believers shall search the Word of God; when they shall not be content with saying, “I have joined myself with a certain body of Christians, and they do this, therefore I do this.” May no man say to himself any longer, “Such is the rule of my church”; but may each say, “I am God’s servant, and not the servant of man; not the servant of thirty-nine articles; of the prayer book, or the catechism. I stand to my own Master, and the only law book I acknowledge is the book of His Word, inspired by His Spirit.” Oh, blessed day, when every man shall say, “I want to know if I am wrong; I desire to know what I am to do; I am anxious to follow the Lord fully.” Well, then, if your joy in God leads you to practical obedience, you may rest assured it has made you strong in the very best manner. Beloved brothers and sisters, we had, before I went away for needed rest, a true spirit of prayer among us. I set out for the Continent joyfully, because I left with you the names of some 80 persons proposed for church membership. My beloved officers, with great diligence, have visited these and others, and next Lord’s-Day we hope to receive more than a hundred, perhaps a 120 fresh members into the church. Blessed be God for this! I should not have felt easy in going away if you had been in a barren, cold, dead state; but there was a real fire blazing on God’s altar, and souls were being saved! Now I desire that this gracious zeal should continue, and be renewed; it has not gone out in my absence, I believe, but I desire now a fresh blast from God’s Spirit to blow the flame very vehemently. Let us meet for prayer tomorrow, and let the prayer be very earnest! And let those wrestlers who have been moved to agonizing supplication; renew the ardor and fervency of their desires, and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord! May sinners in great numbers look unto Jesus and be saved! Amen, and Amen.

Once in the Temple, the priest who had the honor of performing this service now carries the golden flask up the altar ramp. … which took place on exclusively at the Feast of Taberncales.

Isaiah 12:3 ESV

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Based on this verse, the drawing of water from the Shiloach spring and its libation upon the altar of G-d was accompanied by great rejoicing and celebration in the Holy Temple. In fact, this joy was so immense, and the celebrations so uplifting, that the sages of Israel emphatically stated:

Based on this verse, the drawing of water from the Shiloach spring and its libation upon the altar of God was accompanied by great rejoicing and celebration in the Holy Temple. In fact, this joy was so immense, and the celebrations so uplifting, that the sages of Israel emphatically stated:

“Whoever has never seen the celebrations of the Festival of the Water Libation-has never experienced true joy in his life” (ibid. 5, 1).

But what was the cause of such great happiness, to the extent that this statement was recorded for all posterity? Indeed, what could be so moving about the simple act of gathering up some water, and pouring it onto the altar? …

So Jesus used the context of the joyful ceremonial gathering of pure water poured on the altar in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles to point to himself

John 7:37–39 ESV

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 7:as likewise giving ‘living water’ to anyone who is ‘thirsty’. His self-portrait was made vivid in that context to his hearers.

If this ceremony provided such an experience of true joy like no one had ever experience then imagine what Jesus is saying. The water that you pour on the altar can now be poured inside of you. The joy your experience through the illustration of this ceremony can be a perpetual reality internally.

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