Christian joy is an experience that springs from the deep down confidence in the Christian that Christ is sufficient and God is in perfect control of everything, bringing it all to our good in time and eternity. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's become a day more associated with travel, eating and football games than what American President Abraham Lincoln envisioned. It was in 1863 that Lincoln declared the first official Thanksgiving, a time for remembering, quote, the gracious gifts of the Most High God. And what's perhaps most significant about Lincoln's declaration is that it came right in the middle of the U.S. Civil War, a reminder that even during serious troubles, God is gracious and merciful and he deserves our thanks. Well, on this Thanksgiving Day in the United States, John MacArthur shows you why, if you're a believer, you too can give thanks in any circumstance. Today's message is titled Rejoice Always. But first things first, John, happy Thanksgiving to you and to Patricia and to your family. What would you say you are rejoicing for on this Thanksgiving Day? Well, more than we've ever rejoiced for on any other Thanksgiving Day, because we have another year of providence, another year of incredible divine blessing. Amen. Thanksgiving is a unique event for us as a family.
It always has been because it's not cluttered. I mean, even Easter, as much as you want to celebrate the resurrection, gets cluttered with spring and hats and rabbits. And Christmas, the same thing gets cluttered with Santa Claus and presents and all of that.
But Thanksgiving has escaped the cultural, I guess, cloaking that has obscured other holidays as much as they can obscure them. And so for Thanksgiving, we just have a time of going around the table, going through the families, little children, teenagers, adults, all the way through the family and rehearsing what the Lord has done. And I think that is a biblical thing to do.
I think you had that in the Old Testament. God's people are told to remember and to mark the events of God's grace manifest to them. So Thanksgiving is an uncluttered opportunity for us to express our thanks. And as I said at the beginning, we've had a whole year of divine providence, and that has added to the history of the other things we've always been thankful for. And the good news is when your family is in Christ, including the children and even the grandchildren, when they're in Christ, the joy just accumulates and accumulates. And God has blessed our family in that way, bringing our family to the knowledge of the Savior so that we can all join in that celebration.
Yes. Thanks, John. Those are great reasons for giving thanks. And friend, stay here for the next half hour as John shows you even more reasons to overflow with gratitude on Thanksgiving Day and every day with his lesson called Rejoice Always.
Here's John. I want to draw you to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 16. This is one of those verses that are very rare in the Bible, containing only two words, Rejoice Always. It is a command, Rejoice Always. No qualifiers, no caveats, no exceptions, no ifs, ands, or buts. In fact, in the Greek, the order is reversed and the literal translation would be, at all times, be rejoicing.
The Greeks put the word order the way they wanted the emphasis made. It is not then primarily an emphasis on rejoicing, it is primarily an emphasis on at all times rejoicing, as if to say you haven't obeyed until your joy is unceasing. I want to begin with a statement that may surprise you and perhaps appear a little hard, if not impossible, to believe. But I think it's true and then I'll endeavor to show you why it's true. Here's the statement. There is no event or circumstance that can occur in the life of any Christian that should diminish that Christian's joy. Let me say that again. There is no event or circumstance that can occur in the life of any Christian that should diminish that Christian's joy.
Now let me talk about that from a negative standpoint. If joy is diminished in the Christian's experience, that is sin because it amounts to disobedience to this command. That might sound a little bit ridiculous given the woes of life, but it is precisely what this command expects of us. And it's not an isolated command by any means, as we shall see before we're finished, but just comparing it with a couple of places in the Scriptures. For example, Philippians 3, 1, finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 4, 4, rejoice in the Lord, always again I will say rejoice, just in case you didn't get it the first time. We are called to this incessant joy.
It is a command and the emphasis is on the unceasing aspect of this joy. Even when we suffer, Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 13, we are to rejoice with joy, compounding the expression to remind us that this is not some minimal joy, this is not some marginal joy, but this is an incessant kind of joy that gathers up all of our being in its expression. Now somebody might say, well what about Romans 12, 15? Romans 12, 15 says, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Well that's right, but it doesn't talk about our internal Christian joy, that is simply saying show compassion and empathy and sympathy with people. Join in their laughter when they're happy, join in their weeping when they're sad.
Identify outwardly with normal human emotion. But that kind of weeping does not negate joy, as is clear from 2 Corinthians 6, 10 where Paul says, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Paul gives testimony there that he obeyed this command as a way of life. Even when he was sorrowing, sorrowing with the sorrows of others, sorrowing over the failure of believers in churches, sorrowing over the disaffection of those he loved, sorrowing over the pain of persecution, sorrowing more often than not over the maltreatment that the gospel preachers received, sorrowing over the dishonor that was literally placed upon Christ.
And yet all of those kinds of emotional experiences never touched his joy. So in 2 Corinthians 6, 10 does he say, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. The command then is that, at all times be rejoicing.
The adverb is placed first, as I said, in the original text. The word for rejoice is a Greek verb kirate in the imperative mood which means it is a command. That word became an essential element of Christian vocabulary. In fact, when believers met each other, they said kirate. Sometimes that word is translated in the New Testament as a greeting, all hail.
For example, when Jesus came out of the grave in His resurrection and said all hail to the disciples on resurrection morning, it was the word rejoice...rejoice. What a wonderful way to greet one another, that would be, instead of the ambiguous and sort of pointless hello, whatever that might mean. Or how are you, which has always baffled me, because it just doesn't say anything.
How am I what? I suppose it means how are you getting along in life? How much better if we greeted each other with kirate, rejoice...rejoice as a constant incessant reminder of an incessant spiritual duty and obligation. And so it was that the early church believers greeted each other with rejoice and then they often parted with grace and peace. And in that wonderful Philippian epistle, joy is mentioned...some form of the word is mentioned...sixteen times. What makes that, I suppose, remarkable is that that was written as one of Paul's prison epistles. It was written while he was a prisoner, while he was suffering the direst of conditions and persecution and hostility from other Christian evangelists who were accusing him of iniquity and sin, and that's why he was in prison because God was chastening him.
His reputation was being attacked and sullied by those who also named the name of Christ. And in the midst of that sort of personal persecution from other believers, as well as the hostility and suffering at the hands of the Romans, he mentions joy...sixteen times. And joy is continually stressed throughout the New Testament. The gospels throughout the book of Acts, we find the disciples and apostles rejoicing that they were counted privileged to suffer persecution for the cause of Christ. We find it an emphasis in the epistles, the great responsibility to rejoice no matter what is going on, no matter what the conditions. It's kind of an unconditional joy that is incumbent upon believers, even in times of great adversity.
In fact, particularly in times of great adversity are we called to this consummate joy. Paul says in Colossians 1, 24, I rejoice in my sufferings...I rejoice in my sufferings. He obeyed this command and his sufferings were great. You read 2 Corinthians chapter 11, we'll read the whole epistle of 2 Corinthians, this long litany of things that he suffered, shipwrecks and beatings and whippings and stonings. And in all of it, he says, in all my sufferings I rejoice. He obeyed this command.
It is possible. In fact, James emphasizes, James 1, 2, consider it all joy, again not a marginal joy, not a minimal joy, but a consummate joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials because these trials test your faith and they therefore produce endurance. Tested faith is faith that endures and endurance has a perfect result.
It makes you mature and complete, lacking in nothing. You want to be a strong Christian, you want to be resolute, persistent, enduring, patient, faithful, then you have to suffer. You have to go through the difficulty. In fact, Peter says it this way, 1 Peter 1, 6, in this you greatly rejoice, not just rejoice again but greatly.
You see, there's always these adverbs and adjectives that are added to this. You greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You know why it's possible and it's commanded to rejoice in trials? Because trials test your faith. And when you've passed the test, you know you're real, you know you're genuine, you know you're saved. An untested Christian is a Christian subject to doubt. The longer you live as a Christian, the more trials and troubles you have out of which the Lord not only delivers you, but through which...listen...your faith endures, the more you know it's real...it's real. People who doubt salvation tend to be Christians who are immature and untested. When you go through trial after trial after trial that test your faith and your faith stands and the true faith will stand and it will endure and it will prove to be the real thing, then you know you're saved.
The trial, no matter how severe the trial, only proves the validity of real faith in God. And so the trials come to give you the joy of knowing your salvation is the real thing. Scripture says that true joy is to be great, it is to be abundant, it is to be exceeding, it is to be animated, Psalm 32, 11. It is to be unspeakable, 1 Peter 1.8. That is, you can't even find words for it, it just wells up and just bubbles up in you.
It is to be full of glory, Peter also said that, Psalm 2, it is to be full of awe because you're so overwhelmed with what God is providing for you. It's a kind of an over-the-top joy, it's a superabundant joy. This should characterize our lives all the time.
In fact, it's commanded. Now it should be obvious that the command to rejoice is not then dependent upon positive circumstances. We're not talking about that kind of joy, that's the world's joy. And I'll just define the world's joy for you.
I mean, you know this, it's obvious to you before you were a Christian, it's obvious to you as you look at the world around you. You know, God has given a common grace and that is the ability for people to be happy. Happiness and sadness is frankly a function limited to people.
No other part of God's physical creation has that ability. They don't have emotion. Sorry to tell you this, animals don't have emotion. They don't feel things, but people do. And God has as a common grace given human beings the ability to be happy.
But it's limited. The kind of joy that the people without the Lord have is derived from the fulfillment of earthly pleasure. In other words, it's directly connected to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's what they want and get that makes them happy.
And if they don't get what they want, they're not happy. So if they lust after something that their body wants, or they lust after something their eyes see, or they desire strongly something that they think will satisfy their sense of well-being, pride, and they get it, then there's joy. But their joy is derived from earthly pleasure and earthly pleasure is connected to the matrix of desires that are part of man's nature as fallen.
You follow the impulses of your heart and if you get what your heart wants, you're happy. You see something, you want it, you go shopping, you get it, you buy it, you find there's a certain high, there's a certain euphoria in that experience of getting what you wanted. But this kind of joy not only is derived from earthly pleasure, but it's a delusion...it's a delusion because it never really satisfies because lust never ceases, desire never ceases. And it can never be ultimately fulfilled. So it isn't long after you have what you thought you really wanted and it only brought you a moment of happiness and you find out what Proverbs says, the end of joy may be grief.
You're going to find out that what was such a thrill for you at the moment may be a serious pain for you. That's why people move from material thing to material thing to material thing incessantly. That's why they move from partner to partner to partner to partner in relationships incessantly because the momentary thrill in the fulfillment of their lust dissipates very fast, is delusional and they look one day at the person that they wanted so badly and they don't want them anymore and now the grief comes, how do I get rid of this person to move on to what my lust wants now? And that's how they live their life, controlled to some degree by conventional expectations and the expectations of people around them.
But it's a delusion. They wanted it so badly and then they got it and all that thrill was gone very fast. It's short lived, Job 20 verse 5, the joy of the godless is momentary...the joy of the godless is momentary.
It comes, it goes, it's that quick. Ecclesiastes 7, 6 says, like kindling, it burns up fast. Isaiah 16, 10 says, the joy of gladness is taken away. That's the joy of the world. The joy of the world is connected to the desire of the heart, the impulse of the heart. It's connected to the fulfillment of pleasure.
It's very, very delusionary because it just promises something it can't deliver because your lust is never satisfied and then you've got a problem of what you do with this thing that you once wanted so badly and now it's a pain to you because you want something else, or someone else. But this is the nature of the joy of the natural man, the natural fallen heart. I'm not talking about that. We experience that as fallen creatures. Sometimes you think if you just had this house or that car or this piece of furniture or that wardrobe thing or whatever achievement or that job or that position or that degree or whatever it might be, or that person, it would be the end of all your desires.
You would have been there and you have reached the summit of human existence and everything that mattered to you is wrapped up in that one thing for that moment and that would satisfy you and it just doesn't because it is the very essence of humanness in a fallen condition to desire and desire and desire and desire and never ever be ultimately or finally or permanently satiated. We're not talking about that. We're not talking about that kind of joy. That is not supernatural joy. We're talking about supernatural joy, something that is not natural, something that comes from God, not from our humanness. We're talking about a joy that is impossible to a non-believer. It's a joy that comes from God. Let me give you a little bit of a paradigm as to how to think about this kind of joy we're talking of. First of all, and I'll give you a flow here, it comes from God.
That's where it starts. It comes from God. There are a number of passages that undergird that statement. Psalm 4 would be sufficient, verse 7, thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound. God, you did something in my heart that is more than the natural joy that I received when all my crops came in and I had all I wanted to eat and all I wanted to drink and all the resources and money that I needed. You did something in my heart way more than that. You...he says...gave me peace so that I can lie down and sleep. You make me dwell in safety.
You take all the anxiety out of my life. You gave me more than when I got everything that the world could give me. This is the joy that comes from God in Psalm 16 verse 11. In Thy presence is fullness of joy. So we're talking about a joy that comes from God. It's a full joy. It's a spiritual joy.
It's a supernatural joy. It comes from God. Secondly, it comes through Jesus Christ. It comes through Jesus Christ. God gives it, but He only gives it to those who are in Christ.
It is reserved for those who are Christ's. John 15, 11, these things I've spoken to you that My joy may be in you, that your joy may be made full. Jesus saying to the disciples, the Apostles, you're Mine and with Me in the relationship that we have, you get My joy, My full joy from God through Christ. It is the very joy of which the angels spoke to the shepherds in Luke 2, good news of great joy which shall be for all the people for today in the city of David has been born for you a Savior, Christ the Lord. It is the joy that comes through faith in the Savior.
There's a third element in this flow. From God through Christ, this joy, God is the source, Christ is the mediator and the Holy Spirit is the energizer of that joy. Romans 14, chapter 14 and verse 17, a wonderful verse and it's a contrast, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. The Kingdom of God is not satisfaction from the physical, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit from God as source through Christ as mediator by the Holy Spirit as energizer. That is why Galatians 5 22 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love.
What's the second one? Joy...joy. God is the source, Christ is the mediator, that joy is only available through Christ.
It comes into our lives through Christ. My joy is given to you so your joy is complete. It is an unlimited, undiminished, full joy. It is as if God fills a well with joy out of which you can draw your whole life and never diminish the source. But the drawing of that joy is dependent upon the Holy Spirit, that is to say, walking in the Spirit, obeying the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit. That's what delivers that joy.
But there's a fourth element in this. It is also a product of receiving the Scripture...of receiving the Scripture. First John 1 4, these things we write unto you that your joy may be full. It is related to the Scripture. It is from God through Christ by the Holy Spirit as we understand the Scripture.
And then one other element, it is enhanced and enriched through trials. James 1 2, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. This joy comes from God mediated by Christ, energized by the Holy Spirit as we receive the Word in the midst of trials. This is not natural joy, this is supernatural joy. This is what Peter calls rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
This is an inexpressible joy that has a divine glory to it. No circumstance affects it. No event affects it. No acquisition affects it and no loss affects it. No gain affects it.
No deprivation affects it. The kind of joy we're talking about is not related to your position in life or your possessions in life. Let me tell you what it is. Christian joy is an experience that springs from the deep down confidence in the Christian that Christ is sufficient and God is in perfect control of everything, bringing it all to our good in time and eternity. It's that joy that's unassailable because it's below the surface, unaffected by the winds and the waves of experience on a human level. It's the joy that comes out of that eternal, unchanging, unalterable, rich relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit as we receive the Scripture in the midst of trials. It's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, helping you take hold of true Christian joy that perseveres even through trials. The title of today's lesson here on Grace to You, Rejoice Always.
And now friend, all this Thanksgiving week we have aired messages on gratitude and contentment. If you missed one, I would encourage you to go to our website and download it. All of those messages are available to you free of charge. Just take advantage of our sermon archive today.
Our web address is gty.org. Again, all of John's sermons are free at the website. You'll also find daily devotionals by John, the Grace to You blog, featuring timely, helpful articles from John and our staff. And you can follow along with the MacArthur Daily Bible Reading Plan. If you're not sure what to check out first on our website, let me recommend what we call Grace Stream. It's nonstop preaching from John, featuring sermons on every verse of the New Testament in sequential order. We start in Matthew, go all the way through Revelation and then start over again.
Leave it running while you're at home and even at work if that's possible. It's a great way to fill the white spaces of your day with biblical truth. Our website again, gty.org. And friend, let me encourage you to follow us on social media for the latest Grace to You news.
You'll find us on Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, wishing you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving celebration. And be here at the same time tomorrow when John shows you how to rejoice in the Lord no matter what trials may come your way. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
