| Introduction The Bible declares that in God's presence is fullness of joy; at his right hand are pleasures forever (Ps. 16:11). If we as his people are to reflect his image, then we must become joyous people. Where do we find God's joy? I. What is this joy? Three ways to think of it. A. There are three ways to think of this joy. 1. The joy of the Lord is the joy that the Lord has in himself. a. If this is the case, then this is the happiness that God has in his fellowship with himself in the Trinity. b. Our strength is the fact that God is happy in himself. 2. The joy of the Lord is the joy that the Lord gives to his people. a. This is the result of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. b. Our strength is the joy of knowing that we have been saved and nothing can change that. 3. The joy of the Lord is the joy we have in the Lord. a. The joy of knowing God as he is revealed to us in the Bible. b. Our strength is the identity of God himself. B. Any of these three interpretations will result in the same thing, II. God and his Word should be a source of great joy for the believer. A. The joy of the Lord is not the joy of circumstances or temperament. 1. This is obvious from the fact that it is distinctly called "the joy of the Lord." a. People in the world who do not know God can be have some sort of joy when something good happens in their lives. b. But the joy of the Lord is something that only those who know the Lord can enjoy in spite of circumstances. a. The psalms are full of rejoicing and gladness in the Lord, and quite often at the most unexpected moments. b. In Psalm 13, David cries out, "How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?" 1) Four times he cries out, "How long," mentioning his ongoing sorrow. 2) But at the end of the short psalm, he affirms his trust in the Lord's lovingkindness and then states by faith, "My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me" (13:5-6). 3) This is not the joy of circumstances, but rather the joy that comes from focusing on and trusting in the Lord and his salvation. 3. The apostle Paul knew the same thing. a. He wrote Philippians from prison in Rome. b. Fellow Christians were badmouthing him. c. The Judaizers were using a subtly false message to seduce many in the churches that he had planted. d. But Philippians is full of joy and commands to the believers to rejoice in the Lord always. e. We may feel tempted to ask if Paul was oblivious to reality. 1) The answer is that he was completely in tune with reality. 2) The reality that God is his God because of Jesus Christ and that all things were working together for his good as he became more and more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. B. The joy of the Lord comes out of true repentance. 1. The tears of 8:9 were tears of repentance (proof = extended prayer of confession in chpt. 9). a. There is a superficial kind of joy that just shrugs off sin as no big deal and goes on its happy way, but that is not the joy of the Lord. b. There is an irony in Scripture in that the believer both mourns over sin and yet rejoices in the Lord. 1) Paul said that he was "sorrowful yet always rejoicing" (2 Cor. 6:10). 2) A Christian will be sorrowful that he does not enjoy the kind of sweet, constant fellowship with Christ that he ought to enjoy, and yet be rejoicing in the mercies of God. 3) We can and should weep with those who weep in grief, but undergirding the grief is the solid joy of sins forgiven and the hope of heaven. 2. Some tend to be gloomier by nature and spend too much time considering their sin. a. If that is you, I would urge you to put your focus more on the things above, where Christ is seated, having procured our salvation and where we are by virtue of our position in Him. b. Robert Murray McCheney says, "for every look at your sin, take ten looks at Christ." 3. But I think that is not usually our issue – most Christians are actually too flippant about their sins. a. They commit serious sins and just shrug it off by saying, "We are under grace!" b. But if my sin put the sinless Son of God on the cross, I dare not take it lightly. 4. The proper balance is to take our sins seriously and truly to repent of them, but then to put our focus back on Christ and our position in him by grace. 5. We should visit repentance as often as needed, but we should dwell in the joy of God's grace. C. The joy of the Lord is the joy of God's forgiveness and covenant love. 1. All the great feasts in Israel, including tabernacle that they are about to celebrate, were a reminder of God's abundant mercy to his chosen people in spite of their sin and failure. 2. In Psalm 32, which David probably wrote after his sin with Bathsheba, he extols the blessings that are on the one whose sin God has forgiven. Ps. 32:1-2– Blessed is he whosetransgression isforgiven, whosesin iscovered. Blessed isthe man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there isno deceit. 3. It's not by accident that that Psalm ends with the exhortation, "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all youupright in heart!" (32:11). 4. After you have confessed your sins, rejoice that God has forgiven all your sins in Christ and that he has pledged his covenant love to you for all eternity. D.The joy of the Lord comes from properly understanding God's Word, 8:12. 1. God's Word makes known to us his "exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Pet. 1:4). 2. The Bible not only promises us complete pardon for all of our sins, it also promises God's presence and sustaining grace in the present and the untold joy of eternity with him in the future. 3. It tells us that God "has given to us all things that pertainto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue" (2 Pet. 1:3). a. When you go through deep trials, Satan tempts you to think that God does not care for you. b. It's easy to quit reading your Bible because you think, "These things don't seem to apply in my case." c. But it is especially at such times that you need to be devouring the Bible. 1) It reassures you of God's love and grace. 2) It tells of other believers who have endured incredibly difficult trials by trusting in God's Word. 3) It gives you a much-needed perspective on trials. E. The joy of the Lord is joy in God himself. 1. By nature, we all tend to find joy in things other than God himself. a. We find joy in our health when we have it. c. We find joy in the beauty of God's creation. d. We find joy in our relationships with loved ones. e. We find joy in some of our possessions, such as our homes, cars, computers, and other gadgets. f. As long as we thankfully acknowledge that these good things come from God's hand, that's proper. 2. But all of us should be growing to know God himself as our chief treasure. a. We should find such joy in the very being of God, and the fact that we are his and he is ours, that even if everything in life and life itself is stripped away, we rejoice in him alone. b. Were we to be imprisoned and tortured for our faith, as many saints around the world suffer today, we should still rejoice in our God 3. We should rejoice in God's perfect attributes as we meditate on them in Scripture. a. Satan's first ploy in the garden was to get Eve to view God as not good. b. He uses the same ploy today. 1) He wants you to think of God as a cosmic killjoy who wants to make you miserable by his many restrictive laws. 2) He wants you to view God as a grumpy, mean God who always says "no" when you want to have fun. 3) But the Bible reveals God as full of joy. Ps. 16:11– You will show me the path of life; in Your presence isfullness of joy; at Your right hand arepleasures forevermore. Zeph. 3:17– The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet youwith His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. 4) All of God's attributes as revealed in Scripture, whether his righteousness, his justice, his holiness, his sovereignty, or his love, should fill us with joy as we meditate on them. 4. We should especially rejoice in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, where God's love and justice met and found us. a. We should rejoice in how he chose us and called us to himself, and in the total acceptance that we have by grace through faith in Christ. b. We should rejoice in the daily fellowship that we know with God through his Word and prayer. c. We should rejoice that we can call him Father and come boldly into his presence through Christ. F. The joy of the Lord is not at odds with holiness. 1. Three times (8:9, 10, 11) the leaders repeat to the people that they are not to weep, but rather to be joyful, because "this day is holy to our Lord." a. Holiness and joy are not at odds with each other, as we so often think. b. Rather, they are intimately linked – the second fruit of the Holy Spirit is joy. 2. The world puts on a flashy show of joy in its enticements. a. Award shows parade "happy" people that defy morality. b. Happiness, joy, is promised by denying and rejecting God and his Word. c. Joy and the beauty of God's holiness always go together. III. This joy of the Lord is a source of great strength for the believer. A. We have strength against the condemnation of the law's just demands. 1. God's holy law brings condemnation, because we all are guilty of breaking it. 2. Outside of Christ we stand justly condemned. But, "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1)! 3. This is to say that when we think about how far we fall short of God's perfect righteousness, we take refuge in Christ's imputed righteousness. 4. The joy of his salvation gives us strength to stand before God in spite of our many shortcomings. B. We have strength against the assaults of our enemy. 1. Satan is the accuser of the saints (Rev. 12:10). 2. If we try to point to our performance as our defense against his accusations, we will not do well. 3. But if we point to the blood of Jesus Christ, we will not lose our joy in the battle, but will stand firm. 4. Our joy does not rest on our being perfect, but rather on our being in Christ. C. We have strength in the hope of God's promises. 1. As believers, we stake everything on the promises of God. 2. If his Word fails, we are doomed. a. If Jesus is not risen, our faith is in vain. b. But if he is risen, and if he is coming again for his bride, even in the midst "of tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword," we are still more than conquerors. IV. The joy of the Lord is something to be experienced, both personally and corporately. A. Our text is both a word of encouragement and a command. 1. God wants his people to experience his joy. 2. Each of us must experience his joy personally so that when we come together corporately it overflows to those who come into our midst. B. The Bible offers us hope in that we can have joy. 1. We can choose to stand in the shadows or in the light. 2. We can focus on the things of this earth or on the things above. 3. We can dwell on the things that cause us anxiety or on the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and of good repute (Phil. 4:6-8). 4. In other words, as believers we have the choice to rejoice, and we must deliberately exercise that choice by faith in God's Word. I read about a story in the life of Josef Tson, the Christian pastor in communist Romania. In the story, Tson told about one day when the Communists came to his house and confiscated almost all of his books. The soldiers needed proof that they were getting his books from him, so they made him sit at a table and write in each book that they found it in his house, while they took pictures of him doing this. At one point in this process, Tson took down a book whose title was, "Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory," with the subtitle, "Is This Your Experience NOW?" It is not a joyful thing for a pastor to lose his books! But as he read the title, Tson asked himself that question and at that moment was flooded with great joy in the Holy Spirit. He lost his anger and fear and told his wife to get the soldiers some coffee. Later that week he had to preach. His congregation knew that he had been stripped of his books and had been harassed daily by the officials so that he had no time to prepare a sermon. He spoke that day on Nehemiah 8:10, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." One man in the church was so overwhelmed with the sheer force of Tson's joy in the midst of suffering that he could not hear anything after the text. He was broken in his own heart and deeply changed.
Is this your experience now? If it is, dwell there! If it is not, seek to get there. There is joy and strength in God Himself and in His Word of promise to every believer.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-joy-of-lord-is-your-strength.html
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