Download Walking in Humility - Calvary Baptist Church

SERIES:
SUBJECT: Joy = Hope
READING:
According to my earnest expectation and my hope,
that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as
always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether
it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain. Philippians 1:20-21 (KJV)
Introduction:
I have expressed the title to this evenings sermon as a formula;
Joy=Hope. You may wonder how I arrived at that formula. In
Paul’s epistles Romans through Hebrews he uses variations the
word joy 34 times. And words containing the idea of rejoicing 27
times.
Among these many mentions of joy and rejoicing there is a
recurring theme; Joy is the result of something happening related
to God, the ministry, the spirit of God and the work of God all of
which transcend the problems, difficulties, and the tribulation one
faces. Listen to this example;
2Co 7:4; Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my
glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in
all our tribulation.
In addition the presence of Joy is evidence that God is working;
Gal_5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Although Joy involves to a degree our emotions Joy is no simply
an emotional experiences. Consider with me some positives and
negatives concerning Christian Joy; Negatives First:
1. Christian Joy Is Not an Act of Will-Power a simple
emotional response of the heart.
1
a. Christian joy has this in common with all joy,
whether Christian or not.
b. When Peter speaks in 1 Peter 1:8 of rejoicing with
“unutterable and exalted joy” in anticipation of our
final salvation, he is not describing a decision;
c. He is describing an explosion. You can decide to
brush your teeth, or get an allergy shot; but you
cannot, in the same way, decide to rejoice.
d. You can decide to do things that may bring you joy
i. Take a drive to the country, visit a friend,
read a psalm.
ii.
But whether joy actually happens is not in
your own power, the way many other acts
are. It may or it may not be there.
e. Christian Joy is spontaneous.
i. You can prepare for it — like lifting your
sail on a still ocean.
ii. But you cannot make the wind blow.
iii. The Spirit blows where it wills, and joy is a
fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
That is the first contrast: Christian joy is not an act of will-power.
It is a spontaneous, emotional response of the heart.
2. Christian Joy Is Not Superficial and Flimsy
a. Christian joy is deep and firm.
b. This is joy should be distinguished from happiness
and pleasure.
2
i. Happiness and pleasure seem too superficial
and flimsy to be Christian Joy.
ii. We do need to be careful to discern the fact
that the Bible may use the idea of pleasure
but one that is distinguished by its context;
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy
presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand
there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm
16:11 (KJV)
1. Notice the qualifier; at thy right
hand there are pleasures for
evermore.
2.
Again; Happy is that people, that is
in such a case: yea, happy is that
people, whose God is the LORD.
Psalm 144:15 where whose God is
the LORD is the qualifier!
iii. But it is true to say that Christian joy is deep
and firm rather than superficial and flimsy.
1. Joy is clearly a very peculiar emotion
that not only endures but seems to
even flourish in affliction.
2. It is startling to read that Paul’s joy
could exist not merely alongside
suffering but even in the midst of
sorrow, which seems to be its
opposite. In 2 Corinthians 6:10 As
sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as
poor, yet making many rich; as
having nothing, and yet possessing
all things.
3
Christian Joy Is Not Natural but spiritual.
1. This distinguishes Christian joy from all other joys. When
something is called spiritual in Scripture, it means that it
comes from the Holy Spirit and has the character of the
Holy Spirit.
2. Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that something is
“spiritual” simply because it has to do with the spirit, and
that something is natural simply because it has to do with
the body or with material things.
a. Pride is natural, but resides in the spirit of man.
b. Envy is natural, but resides in the spirit of man.
c. And so it is with jealousy and anger and strife and
self-pity and resentment and bitterness and
covetousness and hatred and selfishness.
d. These all come from the inner spirit of a person, but
they are not called spiritual in the Bible.
e. They are called natural, because no special,
supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit are
needed to produce them. We produce these things
by our own nature. So they are called natural.
3. What makes something spiritual is that it is produced under
the special influences of the Spirit of God, and has the
character of the Spirit of God.
a. So when we say Christian joy is spiritual, not
natural, we mean that it is produced by the Spirit of
God and is the kind of joy that God has.
b. As I mentioned a moment ago Joy is an element of
the fruit of the spirit.
c. So there is plenty of biblical evidence that Christian
joy is not the mere product of the human spirit in
response to pleasant circumstances.
4
d. It is the product, or fruit, of God’s Spirit. And it is
not just a human joy; it is the very joy of Christ
fulfilled in us.
Beware of False Joy
1. There is a natural joy even in spiritual things which many
mistake for a spiritual joy.
2. For example, from the parable of the four soils Jesus gave
this interpretation of the seed sown on rocky ground:
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that
heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not
root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or
persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Matthew 13:20-21 (KJV)
3. Here is a joy in the word of God that is not a spiritual joy
and is no evidence that a true conversion has taken place.
a. It is not the work of the indwelling Spirit of God.
b. It does not have the character of Christ’s joy.
c. It vanishes like the dew when the hot sun of
affliction rises in the sky.
4. False Joy can and is often generated in an emotional
experience such as takes place when certain types of music
and positive proclamations as might take place in a benny
Hinn meeting;
a. People shout for joy at the minute but when the
hoop a la clears the same crippled legs give way to
their disease!
b. The joy is false generated emotionally as opposed to
Spiritually!
5
c.
Why does this joy vanish so easily? Why is it
superficial and flimsy? Evidently because it was not
a joy in God but merely in some of the comforts
that God might give. When the afflictions and the
persecutions and the hard times come, and the
comforts disappear, so does the joy. Because it was
not the fruit of the Spirit; it was not the joy of Christ
that delights in God no matter what the external
circumstances are.
Christian joy is not an act of will-power, but a spontaneous,
emotional response of the heart.
Second, it is not superficial and flimsy, but deep and firm.
Third, it is not natural, but spiritual.
Thirdly it is false joy when it is generated by the emotions of the
flesh and not of the spirit!
All three of the above do not produce hope! Hope only comes from
Joy that is produced by the spirit of God in the Child of God!
I want to stop here this evening as we prepare for the Lord’s
supper;
6