This is Monday evening, June 18, 1973, in Richmond, Virginia. Ministry is being given through Brother Stephen Kong.
I do not know who wrote this chorus, but I brought it back from New Zealand in 1970. I was invited to New Zealand for a conference. I did not know these people. They had invited Brother [unintelligible] to their conference in 1969, and evidently he introduced me to them. So they wrote and asked me to visit them during their conference in October 1970.
Every year they had a conference in a large tent. People came and lived in what we call trailers; they called them caravans. It was a week-long conference.
Now, the background of these people: most of them, or at least some of them, came from an Apostolic faith background. I do not know whether you are familiar with that. It was actually the result of the Welsh Revival in 1905. You know, in Wales there was a great revival, and that revival came to New Zealand. Out of that revival came the Apostolic Faith Church.
Two brothers, brothers in the flesh but also in the Lord—one of them was a minister in the Apostolic Faith Church for ten years, or for a number of years. His work was to go around New Zealand, bringing a tent with him, and he would hold evangelistic meetings. He worked especially among young people.
After he had worked for about ten years, he began to feel that the Lord was leading him simply to trust the Lord and to be guided by the Lord in everything. So he and his brother took jobs—they were builders. They began to build houses to maintain their living, but they told me that serving the Lord was the priority.
So they began a work at the southern tip of the North Island. You know, New Zealand is composed of two islands, the North Island and the South Island. At the southern tip of the North Island, they began to start a work there, and the Lord began to work through these two brothers and a few others with them.
Every year they held such a conference. Among them, of course, signs and wonders were almost routine occurrences. The year I was there, in 1970, I do not know who wrote this chorus, but in a sense it became the theme song of that conference.
This brother had such a heart for the Lord, and he sang this again and again during the conference. He was very musical, and so was his brother. Both of them were very musical. As he led the congregation in singing this chorus, I sensed that he was simply expressing what was in his heart:
Show me Thy way, O Lord;
Reveal Thyself to me.
I have seen Thy signs and wonders,
But, Lord, I would know Thee.
You could see that when he sang that, the whole atmosphere was to know the Lord. He was not satisfied merely by seeing signs and wonders, though they saw many. They wanted to know the Lord Himself. That was the theme song of that conference. So I brought it back some years ago, and we sang it once more.
Lord, how we praise and thank Thee. Thou dost show us signs and wonders, for Thou dost desire that we would know Thee. Lord, this is the prayer of our heart tonight.
We thank Thee and praise Thee for Thy signs and wonders. But, Lord, we know that these point us to Thyself. Lord, we can never be satisfied without Thee. We would know Thee. O, reveal Thyself to us.
Thou must be everything to us. Unless Thou art everything, Lord, all things are empty, although they may be fortunate. But, Lord, Thou art the only One who is eternal. Thou art the only reality in this universe.
So, Lord, with such a desire in our hearts, we come to Thee tonight, trusting Thy Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality, to lead us into all truth. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been fellowshipping together during the past two sessions on the letter to the Philippians. We mentioned at the very beginning that the letter to the Philippians has a unique character. Of all the letters written by the Apostle Paul to the churches, this letter is the most intimate of all his writings.
It is a love letter. It is a heart-to-heart talk between Paul and the saints in Philippi. There was such love between them. There was no inhibition, no reservation, no fear, no misunderstanding; there was just a free flow of the innermost feeling of Paul to the saints in Philippi.
Paul does not deal too much with teaching or doctrine. He does not deal very much with problems. It is not a corrective letter, nor an instructive letter. Yet there is such a sense of life, of love, of uplift, when you read this letter to the Philippians.
Sometimes, after you have read such a letter, it is very difficult to explain it or to tell it. Yet somehow you feel warm in the Lord. That is the kind of letter Philippians is.
In this letter Paul reveals himself. He bares himself to the saints. He tells them the secret of his life as a Christian, and the secret is: “For me to live is Christ.”
In other words, it is not Paul who is living. It is not Paul who is trying to live a Christian life. It is not Paul who is trying to live like Christ. He had found that it was impossible. Even though he had such a strong will, and was a man of genius and great ability, yet he gave up. He said, “It is impossible.”
But at the same time, he discovered the secret: “For me to live is Christ.” It is not I, Paul, who am living; it is Christ who lives in me. That is the explanation of his whole life. Because he lived by the life of Christ, his walk on earth was according to the mind of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, and the spirit of humility.
Now tonight, we would like again to go through this letter—not the first chapter, not the second chapter, but the whole book. As you read the letter to the Philippians, you cannot help noticing a note that runs through the whole letter. Thank God, quite a number of the choruses we sing have that note.
As you read Philippians, you will find one word, or similar words, repeated again and again. If you try to count this word and its related words, you will find them altogether fourteen times. Thirteen times it is the word joy or rejoice.
So people who read this letter to the Philippians say that it is the letter of joy. Throughout the whole letter, no matter what Paul writes, it carries with it a note of joy.
This is especially impressive because, when you consider the situation of Paul and the situation of the church in Philippi, there does not seem to be much reason for such joy.
Look at Paul. He was a prisoner in Rome. Even though he was given certain liberties—he was allowed to live in his own rented apartment and was even allowed to receive visitors—yet he was confined to a certain area. He was not allowed to move freely. A Roman guard, a Praetorian guard, was always chained to him day and night. He had no liberty and no privacy.
He was waiting to be tried by Caesar, by Nero. When a prisoner was waiting to be tried by the emperor, he never knew when he would be tried. It was up to the emperor. When the emperor felt that he wanted to look into your case, then your case would be tried. If he did not mind to do that, you never knew how many years you might be confined as a prisoner without getting a trial.
Paul was waiting there for trial, and he never knew when it would come. That was a real burden. Not only that, he never knew what the outcome of that trial would be, humanly speaking. It was up to the emperor—up to the time when he tried the case, and up to the mood he was in.
Brothers and sisters, how we like to have everything settled. When things are uncertain, that is still a trial. We would rather see it go one way or the other—either life or death, acquittal or sentence—than to hang there in uncertainty. That was what Paul was in during that time.
We also mentioned that when Paul was in Rome, he continued preaching the gospel of grace as God had revealed it to him. But it aroused the jealousy of those so-called Jewish Christians—Christians who believed in the Lord and yet held on to Moses. So they began to preach Christ out of contention and strife, not out of love. These people added to the burden upon Paul’s heart.
Then the news came that the church Paul loved so much—where there was such harmony between the church and Paul—had a serious problem. Two leading spiritual sisters were acting very unspiritually. They were rivals of one another, not because of truth, but because of the flesh and personality.
Paul could not go there and talk to them because he was a prisoner. He was not free. Added to this was the burden of all the churches. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:29, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I burn not?”
Think of the situation Paul was in. Under such a condition, if he did not complain, if he did not rebel against God and against men, that would have been good enough. If he was not groaning and moaning over his tragic condition, that would have been considered victorious. How could he, under such a condition, remain so joyous in the Lord?
This was not just incidental. In the very beginning of the church in Philippi, you remember, Paul was beaten and locked in prison, in the inner dungeon. Yet at midnight, he and Silas prayed and sang praises to God. That was the beginning of the history of the church in Philippi.
Now, approximately ten years later, he was again imprisoned in Rome. There in that prison, while writing a letter to the church in Philippi, he was again singing, praising, and praying to God in the Roman prison. This joy that Paul had was not incidental. It was something that characterized his life.
For ten years, in his relationship with the church in Philippi, he began with joy and he concluded with joy. The situation was getting worse, not better.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians, he knew what the believers in Philippi needed. Because of the rivalry between these two sisters, a shadow was cast over the whole church. Everybody was grieved. Nobody knew what to do.
They were in sorrow, and this was a very dangerous situation. When a person walks in sorrow and grief, he is open to temptation. He is not victorious in the Lord. He becomes an introvert and begins to look within himself. As a person begins to look within himself, temptation is at the door.
I told you what they needed. They needed to be comforted with joy. If only they knew the joy of the Lord, then they would rise above their situation instead of being under the situation. Paul saw the need of joy among the Philippian believers.
But did he write this letter with a note of joy as a policy, as a necessity, trying to create an atmosphere or trying to do something? Not at all. With Paul, the joy in him was real, and only that which is real can be imparted to others.
It is no use telling people to rejoice if the joy of the Lord is not real in you. It was real in Paul. He was not pretending. He was not manufacturing. He was not trying to do something or stirring up something. No, he was simply sharing the joy that overflowed in his life.
The overflowing of joy made the Philippian believers joyful in the Lord. So it is a letter of joy.
Brothers and sisters, according to the Greek word, there is a difference between joy and pleasure. Pleasure, generally speaking, is superficial and transitory. It is an emotional expression that comes out of a conscious pursuit of happiness.
In other words, you are pursuing happiness. You are exerting your effort, consciously seeking for happiness. As you are seeking for happiness, there comes into you an emotional effect, and that emotional effect is called pleasure. It is superficial and transient because it passes away very quickly.
Joy, according to the Greek word, is very different. Joy is deep. It is a sustained thing. It is more than an emotional expression; it is a character.
Joy always carries with it a sense of Him, a sense of realization. It is of a higher realm. Pleasure is earthly; joy is heavenly.
People of this world know pleasure. They seek for happiness, and they get pleasure. They seem to be happy for a short while, and then it is gone. It is superficial. It may be lofty, and yet it goes off very quickly. This is not joy.
Joy is something that is inward, something that is in the spirit. It is a character within us. It has its root somewhere else—not in the things that you seek for, but rooted in God. Because of that, you will find that often affliction and suffering seem to add joy to your life instead of taking it away.
That was the kind of situation Paul was in. There was joy that conditions could not take away. He could rise above all these conditions and rejoice in the Lord. He said, “For me, it is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”
Brothers and sisters, do we know this joy? This joy does not depend upon environment. It is not affected by circumstances. It rises above them because it is rooted in God.
Let us look at our Lord Jesus. If you read the life of Christ in the four Gospels, you will find that His life is a perfect fulfillment of the word in Nehemiah 8:10:
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
The joy of the Lord is my strength. You find this perfectly fulfilled in the life of our Lord Jesus. Who was our Lord Jesus when He was on earth? Isaiah 53 says that He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”
The Lord Jesus was a man of sorrows. He not only knew what sorrow was; He was a man of sorrows. His sorrows were deep, very deep.
His sorrows came from two sources. First, He was such a Person, the Son of God. Even though He was a man, yet He was God, and He had such a heart for mankind. In a sense, He carried with Him and bore upon His heart all the sorrows of this world. He was One full of sympathy.
Brothers and sisters, a person who is so sympathetic, a person who bears the sorrows and pains of other people—how can he sing? Our own sorrows seem to crush us. If we try to bear other people’s sorrows, we find that we are burdened down, way down, by their sorrows.
If you have a bigger heart and begin to bear the sorrows of the whole nation, the sorrows of the whole world, who can do it? You cannot live. You will be completely crushed, because the sorrows of this world are so many, immeasurable. Yet the Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, took upon Himself all the sorrows of mankind and of this world—a Man of sorrows.
Second, His sorrows came from how people treated Him. Oh, how people misunderstood Him, and still misunderstand Him. How He came with a heart of love, and yet they hated Him without a cause. Not only did His foes fail to understand Him; even His disciples often misunderstood Him.
Brothers and sisters, think of it—the sorrows that He received from man’s wickedness. No wonder the prophet says that He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. To Him, grief and sorrow were not theories. He experienced them deeply in His own life.
Now, this is our Lord Jesus: a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Can such a Person have joy? He should be crying and weeping all the time.
As a matter of fact, in the Bible you never find that Jesus laughed. I do not say that He never laughed, but the Bible does not record it. On the contrary, the Bible says, “Jesus wept.” Why? Because He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Yet, dear brothers and sisters, you do not find our Lord Jesus going around with a long face. If our Lord Jesus were like that, no child would ever come near Him.
Children are very innocent, and yet they are very intuitive. If you are a man with a long face, the children can look at you and they will go away. But in the case of our Lord Jesus, you find that the children flocked to Him. Praise Him! He is perfect.
Our Lord took the children in His arms, prayed for them, and blessed them. Think of it. You can see that our Lord Jesus never went around with a long face—no, never. He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, it is true. The Bible does not record His laughing, but only His weeping; yet our Lord Jesus was not One who wore a long face.
He was very attractive to children. You remember, He said to the people:
John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a demon.
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a winebibber.
He was not an ascetic. No, not a hermit. You find that He was open to all.
One day, the seventy disciples whom He had sent out came back rejoicing because their mission was successful. They told the Lord, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Thy name.” They were so happy about it.
Do you know what our Lord Jesus said? “Do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you. There is something better. Rejoice because your names are recorded in heaven.”
The Lord labored much in the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Yet these people refused to receive Him. He had labored so much among them, and yet they rejected Him.
When the Lord looked at these cities, He cried out:
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago.
He had labored so much, and they were so stubborn and hard-hearted. His heart was broken. So far as our Lord was concerned, His heart was truly broken when He faced such a situation. We may say that He was weeping at that time.
But strangely, in the midst of His crying and weeping, suddenly He lifted His eyes to heaven and rejoiced in His spirit:
I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes.
Yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you see that? He was crying, and He was rejoicing. So far as the situation before Him was concerned, it was heartbreaking. Yet when He turned to the Father, He rejoiced. He was there. That is joy.
Joy is not merely going around laughing all the time. You do not know the sorrow, the grief, and the pain in the heart of a clown. A clown may be loud and try to make people laugh, but if you enter into his heart, he may be crushed within, with no joy.
Joy is something that overcomes, that rises above the clouds. There is always sunshine. That is joy. That is our Lord Jesus.
The joy of our Lord Jesus was in the Father, in the Father’s will. As long as He saw the Father, as long as He knew that He was doing the Father’s will, there was joy with Him. That was His joy.
On the last night, when He was with His disciples in that upper room, the whole atmosphere was rather gloomy and dark. The Lord was telling His disciples, “One among you will betray Me.” Everybody knew that something was going to happen. Even though they did not understand it very well, sorrow was filling them, and they were in grief.
During and after the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus poured out His heart to His own. If you read John 14, John 15, and John 16, what do you find? You find again and again the note of joy as a refrain.
The Lord said:
These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
He said, in effect, “Now you are in grief, but I am coming to you, and when you shall see Me, then you will be filled with joy. Until now you have asked nothing of the Father in My name; but now, if you ask in My name, My Father will hear you, and your joy will be full.”
The joy that I give to you, nobody can take away. Brothers and sisters, think of it. Our Lord Jesus was about to be betrayed. Our Lord Jesus was going to the cross. Yet the joy within Him was so full that He was able to share it with His disciples. That is true joy. The joy of the Lord is His strength.
There is another chorus we often sing:
In Thy presence there is fullness of joy;
At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
This is Psalm 16.
Brothers and sisters, have you ever thought about it? “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.” The expression “in Thy presence” literally means, “before Thy countenance is fullness of joy.”
Thy countenance, Thy face, is fullness of joy; and at Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. You see the two words: joy and pleasure. Joy is related to the countenance of God. Pleasures are related to His right hand.
What is the countenance? Our countenance reveals what is living within us. Suppose today you are not too happy. Something is bothering you; you are burdened. Unconsciously, it comes out in your countenance. People can look at you and know what is in your heart.
Joy is always related to the countenance of God. In other words, joy is related to God as He is. If you know Who He is and what He is, then you have joy. Joy is not related to things. Joy is not related to the environment. Joy is related only to God.
If you know Him, if you know Who He is and what He is, if you know His will and are related to His will, then joy is your portion.
What is pleasure? Pleasure is connected with His right hand. The right hand in Scripture always speaks of the act of God. You use your right hand to do something. Suppose you have a need, and you pray. God uses His right hand to do something for you, and you are very happy. That is pleasure.
Does it last long? No. After a while, you forget what God has done for you, because it is pleasure; it is not joy. Joy is knowing the nature of God.
Joy is related to God’s nature, and pleasure is only connected with God’s acts. Here you find our Lord Jesus in His life. He knew joy. He knew the joy of the Lord because He knew the Father and was doing the Father’s will.
His joy always remained. It never changed. He was able to impart His joy to the disciples.
This is the case with Paul. So far as pleasure was concerned, he did not seem to have much. He was not relieved. He was still in prison. He was still burdened with all these pressures.
Yet, dear brothers and sisters, he knew that he was doing the Lord’s will. Because of it, there was a deep joy within him that nothing could take away. He was so joyous in the Lord that he was even able to share it with the believers.
This is Christianity. Oftentimes, we do not see the difference. We often mix up joy and pleasure. But joy is in the spirit, something very deep, and nothing can take it away.
In this letter to the Philippians, you find that from the beginning to the end there is a note of joy. The joy of the Lord is their strength. If you lose that joy, you lose your strength. You begin to be discouraged. You sink into despair.
But if the joy of the Lord is there—oh, thank God! In Hebrews 12, it says:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It was because the joy of the Lord was with Him that He was able to endure everything in order to do the Father’s will. That was His joy, and there He arrived at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now let us look into the letter to the Philippians. You will notice the joy and rejoicing found in this letter, and perhaps we can learn something from it.
The first mention of the word joy is in Philippians 1:4:
Always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy,
for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now.
Here Paul says, “I can pray for you all with joy.” I wonder how many times you are able to pray for someone with joy.
Probably, for most people for whom you pray, you pray with them very sadly. Why? Because you see that something is wrong in their lives, something there that hinders and opposes the gospel. So when you pray for them, you pray with groanings, with deep groanings within: “Oh, that God may get hold of their lives.”
But here Paul was able to pray for the saints in Philippi with joy. Brothers and sisters, sometimes you have that experience. When you mention someone before the Lord, you really feel joyful in your heart. As you mention that person before the Lord, you can praise God for that one.
Paul said, “I make supplication for you always with joy.” Why? “Because of your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel.”
The church in Philippi had fellowship with Paul in the gospel from the very first day until the day Paul was a prisoner in Rome. From the beginning, they stood with Paul in the gospel. They may not have traveled around with Paul, but they supported Paul in prayer. They worked with Paul in the gospel.
Even though Paul was in Rome as a prisoner, they sent Epaphroditus there with their gifts and prayers. They stood with Paul in fellowship in the gospel.
Brothers and sisters, aside from the Lord, that which can give us joy on earth is fellowship. To me, I think it is very real. Aside from the Lord, from Whom we receive the joy of the Lord in us, I think there is nothing that makes us more joyful than to have fellowship with brothers and sisters.
When you find brothers and sisters with whom you can fellowship—of one heart, one mind, and one spirit—you can share together of the Lord, and you are one in the Lord. Brothers and sisters, it gives you such joy, such joy, a foretaste of heaven.
But quite the opposite is true when God’s people come together and begin to discuss this brother and that brother. That is not fellowship. The more you talk about it, the more dead you become.
Fellowship is sharing Christ—sharing Christ. There is nothing more joyous on earth than when God’s people come together and share Christ in one spirit. That is joy.
Paul says, “I pray for you with joy because of your fellowship—fellowship in the gospel. You are one with me in the preaching of the gospel.” That is where joy comes from.
The second place is in Philippians 1:18-19:
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Paul, in a limited way, was still trying to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ—the pure grace of God. Then these Judaizers began to preach Jesus Christ out of contention, trying to distort the truth of the grace of God.
So far as truth was concerned, there could be no compromise. Yet Paul rose above the situation and said, “Whether they preach Jesus Christ by pretense or by truth, in love or in jealousy, at least Jesus Christ is proclaimed.”
No matter what happens to me, Jesus Christ is enough. Not fully, not in perfection, but at least the name of Jesus Christ is being uplifted. If I, Paul, should suffer, that does not matter. I rejoice.
You will find that the reason why we do not rejoice, the reason why we do not have joy, is because we care too much about ourselves. He who cares much about himself is one who is always worried and unhappy.
If we can forget ourselves and think only of the Lord, brothers and sisters, we will rejoice. This is the reason why we are not as joyful as we should be. Why? Because we think too much of ourselves: “What will happen to me?” Then we lose our joy.
But if we think, “Oh, if only Christ is announced, if only Christ is uplifted, I rejoice,” then He is the source of my joy. He is the purpose of my life. Paul could rejoice.
The third time is mentioned in Philippians 1:21-25. Paul was pressed. He said:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if to live in the flesh—if this shall bring fruit from my work—then what I shall choose I know not.
But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better.
Yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake.
And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide, yea, and abide with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.
Here you find Paul was pressed. He did not know whether he should go or stay. If he should go, it would be much better for him because he would be with the Lord. All these trials and pressures would be gone.
But then he thought of the saints. He said, “They still need me.” For their sake, he chose to remain, that he might help them in their progress and joy in the faith.
Brothers and sisters, do you see that? Where is our joy? Our joy is in the Lord. Our joy is in doing the will of God. Where does our joy come from? Our joy comes when we are thinking of the joy of other people.
You cannot rejoice if you always think of yourself. If you can think of other people and seek to make other people joyful, then your joy is full.
In our Chinese classics, there is a saying—I think it was Confucius who asked this question: “To be happy alone, or to be happy with other people—which is happier?” His answer was, “With other people.”
You cannot be happy by yourself. It is very limited. You have to share your happiness with others, and then your happiness is multiplied.
If we seek the joy of our brothers and sisters, to see them progressing in faith and progressing in the Lord, when you see these things, your joy is full. No wonder Paul said later on, “Ye are my joy and my crown” in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is it that we do not have much joy? It is because we are not helping other people. We are not building up other people in the Lord. When you see your brothers and sisters growing in the Lord, and if the Lord should use you in a small way to help them, the joy that comes to you is greater than when the Lord does something merely for you.
It is joy—real joy.
Then, in Philippians 2:1-2, Paul says:
If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions,
make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Joy overflows when we are one in heart, one in spirit, one in love, and one in mind. Brothers and sisters, that is joy—just joy.
Oh, the oneness of God’s people! God’s people are so divided, and when there is division, you are grieved. But when God’s people are truly one, nothing can be compared with that. The joy that comes with the oneness and unity of God’s people is overflowing.
Then, of course, in Philippians 2:17-18, we mentioned this morning:
Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all:
and in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.
We mentioned that the church in Philippi, the saints in Philippi, were as a sacrifice, a burnt offering to the Lord. Paul said, “I am most happy to be the drink offering poured upon the sacrifice. I am willing to add to your consecration as a sacrifice to the Lord. I rejoice with you, and you rejoice with me.”
In other words, the joy of the Lord has to be shared. Naturally, it is much easier to share sorrow than to share joy. If you have sorrow, you like to share it with some people. But if you are happy, you often keep it for yourself.
But in Christ, the joy that the Lord has given must be shared. The more you share it, the more joyful you become.
Then, in Philippians 2:28-29:
I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy; and hold such in honor.
Again, you find joy in seeing and receiving our brothers and sisters. If we can meet our brothers and sisters, there is joy in it. It gives us much joy.
Then you turn to Philippians 3:1:
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.
Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord.” You can only rejoice in the Lord. Outside of the Lord, there is no joy. “To write the same things to you, to me is not irksome.” In other words, it is not troublesome. Why? Because it was so real to him.
He may mention joy fourteen times, and it is always fresh because it is real to him. But, he says, for your sake, the joy of the Lord is our safety.
When a person loses his joy, he is open to temptation because he is depressed. When you are depressed, you are open to all kinds of temptations. But when you are rejoicing in the Lord—when you see the Lord and are with Him—you are above it.
The church in Philippi had another temptation, a small problem: the question of circumcision. Paul said:
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision.
Paul was being very ironic. The Jews always looked upon the Gentiles as dogs. The Jews looked upon the Gentiles as evil workers. The Jews looked upon the Gentiles as the uncircumcised. So Paul turned it around and said, “Beware of the dogs,” referring to these Judaizers. “Beware of the evil workers.” “Beware of the concision.”
There were Jews trying to get into the church in Philippi and trying to teach them to keep the law of Moses, to bring them under bondage again. Paul said that their circumcision was merely mutilation. There was no value in it. They just mutilated their bodies.
Then he turned around and said:
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Circumcision in the Old Testament was only a type of the circumcision of the heart. We who have received the circumcision of the heart are the circumcised. What is the circumcision of the heart? We worship God in spirit. We do not trust in the flesh, and we boast in Christ. That is the true circumcision.
So, brothers and sisters, may the joy of the Lord protect us—protect us from all these temptations. When a person is depressed, he may listen to these Judaizers and think that by doing things he will please God. He will be led astray.
Then, of course, the great chapter on rejoicing is Philippians 4. Paul says in Philippians 4:4:
Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice.
But how? “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Why?
Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
“The Lord is at hand” here does not refer to the second coming of our Lord. Yes, the second coming of our Lord is near; that is true. But here, “The Lord is at hand” refers to the present. The Lord is near now.
Why is it that we do not rejoice in the Lord? It is because we strive for ourselves. In this world, you have to fight for yourself. If you do not strive for yourself, if you do not take care of your life and take care of yourself, who will take care of you?
When you strive for yourself, it is as if the Lord were not here. You have to take care of yourself. So Paul says, “Let your gentleness be known unto all men.” In other words, you do not need to strive for yourself. The Lord is near. He will take care of you.
Then he says:
In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
Of course, as we live on this earth, there are many cares of life. How can we be anxious for nothing, since we have the cares of life around us? But there is a secret.
We can make our requests known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. In other words, hand these things over to the Lord. If we hand them over to the Lord, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.
It does not say, “Make your requests known to the Lord, and He will supply everything.” It does not say that. It says that He will guard, or garrison, your heart and mind. In other words, you will be in peace.
How God is going to answer your request is another question. But at least you will find the peace of God guarding your heart. You will not worry any longer. You can enjoy the Lord. You can be joyous now, even before the answer comes. You can rejoice because you know it is taken care of. Somebody has taken care of it.
Brothers and sisters, this is the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We cannot live if we do not have this joy. But if we have this joy, we can live more than conquerors.
The joy of the Lord is our portion. If you only look—oh, if you ever see His face! If you see His face, there is joy. All that we need is to see Him. That is it. Have you seen Him? Then there is joy. There will be strength in your life, and all things will be taken care of. That is perfect.
Lord, Thou dost tell us that the joy of the Lord is our strength, and we cannot live without strength. Lord, Thou dost tell us that Thy countenance is fullness of joy. O, turn our hearts to Thee, that we may truly see Thy face, and our joy shall be full.
O Lord, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thou art Thyself the source of our joy. We desire to share Thy joy with our brothers and sisters and to receive Thy joy from our brothers and sisters. O, how we praise and thank Thee.
In this world, even though we may have all kinds of pleasures, yet no one can take away the joy that Thou hast given to us. Lord, we praise Thy name. Amen.