Great Gospel Words - The Joy of the Lord

“…this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Nehemiah 8:10b

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his is the sixth in the “Great Gospel Words” devotional series. I begin with a reminder of the theme of this series.

Long, multi-syllabic words often characterize Bible teaching that is grounded in sound theology. Justification, sanctification and glorification are examples. All of these words are important and the truth contained in them is essential. However, for emphasis, this series of devotionals is based on “Great Gospel Words” that are all single syllable. Profound Bible truth is often presented to us in one syllable words. So far, in the first five, we considered: But God, Come Now, The Rock, Kept, Come & See.

In this devotional, we are considering one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. I often close my letters with: “May the joy of the Lord be your strength as you serve Him.” Notice that every word in that sentence is one syllable.

Joy is so much more than an emotion or a fleeting feeling. Rather, it is one of the most profound dividends accrued to the follower of Christ. Joy is the noun, signifying that which the Lord supplies and grows in His people. Rejoice (or be joyful) is the verb form, indicating the manner in which we exhibit joy in our attitudes and actions.

Joy promotes an attitude of gratitude, even in circumstances that we would never choose for ourselves.

Rejoicing always is linked with giving thanks in all circumstances, as Paul wrote to his Thessalonian friends. Both rejoicing and giving thanks are stated to be the will of God in Christ Jesus for us. The context of 1 Thessalonians is saturated with the reality that they were experiencing great affliction and suffering. Yes - even in such circumstances - the work of Christ in us promotes joyful gratitude.

Joy provides us with strength to accomplish great tasks, even when our energy is draining away.

This is illustrated through the events recorded in Nehemiah. After decades of living in physical and spiritual rubble, Nehemiah arrives on the scene in Jerusalem. He is God’s man at God’s time accomplishing God’s purposes. He begins with a visible and troubling reminder of the problems the people are facing. The walls of the city are still in ruins. To the amazement of all, he rallies the people. Together they rebuild the walls in only fifty-two days. But there was no time for a break or to pat themselves on the back for their accomplishment. Now the larger and more serious problem – the spiritual backsliding – had to be addressed. To fix the physical problems while neglecting the spiritual problems is an exercise in futility.

Nehemiah 8 records an incredible account of the revival brought about simply through the reading and explaining of the Word of God to the people. The first and immediate reaction to the Word of God was mourning and weeping. Why? Because they were spiritually empty and depleted and they now realized how spiritually bankrupt they really were. Their apathy and disobedience of the previous decades had left them with NO spiritual strength. Now they were ready for a spiritual renewal and revival. This renewal and revival is presented in one declaration from Nehemiah to the people: “…this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10b). Continuing in Nehemiah, you will find a record of spiritual gains that far outdistance in importance the remarkable rebuilding of the walls.

Here is an important spiritual reminder: Our enemy relishes it when we invest all of our time addressing our physical and material problems, ignoring the spiritual and eternal matters of life.

Joy propels us to pursue the will of the Lord, even when the pathway is difficult.

Jesus, being both totally man and totally God, agonized over the prospect of the cross. He knew that at the cross all of the righteous anger and wrath of a holy God would be born by Him as he shed His blood and died for our sin. In spite of this, He was committed to carrying out the will of His Father. Hebrews 12 grants us a penetrating insight into this event from the perspective of Jesus. “…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” (Hebrews 12:2).

Joy paves the way for the new redeemed nature to predominate, even when the old sin nature is attempting to rear its ugly head.

The Lord, who saved us, has given us the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. Sanctification is accompanied by the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives, thus crowding out the noxious weeds and thorns of the self-life. Joy is not a task to be pursued; it is a fruit that supernaturally grows as we abide in Christ. Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine fruit of the Spirit. While it is really not possible to rank these from one to nine in order of importance, it can be asserted that if the first three are growing – love, joy, peace – the other six will follow - patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Let’s not cheapen joy into a fickle emotion. Joy is a powerful spiritual force that is absolutely necessary for experiencing growth, effectiveness and victory in living for our Lord.

Great Gospel Words - "Come & See"

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" He said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see." So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

2 Kings 6:15-17

The day was not beginning well for Elisha and his servant. When the unnamed servant went outside early in the morning, he found that the city was surrounded by the soldiers and chariots of the opposing Syrian army. He knew that the King of Syria was out to get Elisha. Running back inside to alert Elisha, the servant exclaimed, “Alas, my master, what shall we do?” Elisha’s response, instead of being directed to the servant, was in fact a prayer to the Lord: "O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see." So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Cultivating our spiritual sense of seeing is an important ingredient in a growing relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man. Psalm 66:5

The Lord and His Word call us to “come and see.”

Let’s face something head on. We want to see what we want to see. Our fallen nature has the hallmark of being extremely self-centered. This filter allows in that which feeds our self-centeredness and keeps out that which challenges our self-centeredness. For example, is it easier to recognize gossip in what we say or what in others say? Is it easier to see shortcomings in others or in ourselves?

The antidote to this fallen self-centeredness is to “come and see” what the Lord wants us to see. Our seeing needs to be transformed from being self-centered to becoming “God-centered.”

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." John 1:45-46

Nathanael did just that and his life was never the same again.

While there is quite a wide choice of verses from the Bible that emphasize “Come and see”, I propose this as the theme verse for our spiritual seeing as we seek to apply this to our lives:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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. Hebrews 12:1-2

“Looking to Jesus” is the way we were saved in the first place. A classic example of this is found in the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus recorded in John 3. In His continuing explanation of being born again, of believing in the Son of God, Jesus reaches back for an Old Testament picture of the Cross.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. John 3:14-15

The background to this analogy is in the book of Numbers. As a judgment against the people for their continual sin, the Lord sent serpents among the people who bit them with fatal results. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord, Who gave Moses the following instruction:

And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live" (Numbers 21:8). All they had to do was look to the serpent and they would live.

When Jesus applies this story to Nicodemus and to us, He equates this looking to believing…trusting… accepting God’s remedy for their sin.

Having seen…believed in…Jesus to be saved, the Lord now calls us to keep our eyes on Jesus. Of course, this refers not to our physical eyes, but our spiritual sight. We were blind, not now we see. We no longer walk by sight, we walk by faith.

When we do this, we begin to see life from God’s point of view, from God’s perspective.

• Seeing Jesus, we follow the guidance of the Good Shepherd.
• Seeing Jesus, we receive the illumination of the Light of the World.
  
• Seeing Jesus, we forsake error as we pursue the Truth.
• Seeing Jesus, we are well fed by the Bread of Life.
  
• Seeing Jesus, we remain spiritually hydrated as we drink of the Living Water.
  
• Seeing Jesus, we abide in the Vine, receiving spiritual nutrition and yielding spiritual fruit.
  
• Seeing Jesus, we will never die for He is our Resurrection and our Life.
  

Do we need any more reasons for taking our eyes off of ourselves?

Encouraging persecuted Christians, who are seeing with their physical eyes great persecution and suffering all around them, Peter relates the power of 20/20 spiritual vision in seeing Jesus:

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Although our physical eyes cannot see a physical Jesus, our spiritual eyes keep looking to the resurrected and glorified Christ!

Amen and Amen!!

Great Gospel Words - Kept

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to His great mercy,
He has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you,
who by God’s power are being guarded through faith
for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:3-5

It is no secret that fishing is not on my list of recreational activities. It may be a surprise to some that I did a great deal of fishing as a boy growing up. Our family’s annual fishing vacations to northern Wisconsin provided great adventure to a grade school boy. In our early years, my brothers and I were relegated to fishing from the pier or the shore. The boat fishing would come in due time. Finally I was old enough to go with dad in the boat to get the “big ones.” I distinctly remember asking my dad each and every time we pulled a fish into the boat, “Is it a keeper?” It got to the point where my dad would automatically tell me if the fish was a “keeper” without my even asking.

Follower of Christ, you need not ask that question. I declare to you, on the authority of God’s Word, that you are a keeper! In our throw-away world, this Great Gospel Word – KEPT – is a truth that brings great assurance, confidence and encouragement.

1 Peter 1:3-10 presents one of the greatest doxologies of praise to our God for His great salvation in the entire Bible. The first three of these verses are quoted above. It would be a good idea to get your Bible – right now! – and read these verses through a couple of times. Read them slowly, carefully and prayerfully.

It is important to answer the question: Who are kept? Those who are ‘born again to a living hope’ are the kept ones. This phrase establishes Christianity as a Gospel of redemption. The world says reform; the Gospel transforms. The world educates; the Gospel regenerates. The world encourages turning over a new leaf; the Gospel imparts a new life. As a born again believer who has trusted in Christ alone for your salvation, our God makes a bold statement to you: Jesus said “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29) If Jesus and the Father both say that I cannot be snatched away from them, I know for certain that God is keeping me safe, for time and for eternity!

Now back to the text from 1 Peter. Since he inserts a disclaimer regarding that from which we are not kept, it is appropriate to highlight it here. This will remind us that our keeping is on God’s terms, not our wishes and desires. We need to guard against the line of reasoning that goes something like this: Since God is loving and powerful…and since I belong to God who is keeping me…He will exhibit that love by keeping me from trials and struggles and difficulties. The problem with this line of reasoning is that it is not Biblical. It raises a false expectation. Then, when that false expectation is not met, we become disenchanted with God and begin to doubt Him. This is dangerous. Peter is clear:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6-7

When you are being grieved by various trials, it is because, in God’s eyes, the trials are necessary. Why? To prove to you the genuineness of your faith. This is the very basis of you being kept by God. We are not kept from trials, but He keeps us spiritually safe as we go through trials.

Here are two very practical encouragements provided by the Word of God to fill you with confidence today and every day.

His keeping is non-stop, twenty-four hours a day.

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:2-4

He makes it possible for us to be kept in perfect peace.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4

So, I remind you that you do not need to wonder if you are ‘a keeper.’ God’s promises stand firm. He will keep them and He will keep you from spiritual stumbling and falling. This is emphasized in one of the greatest benedictions you will find in the Bible.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 24-25

This security of being kept by God began in free salvation when you trusted in Christ and were born again. This security displays the fullness of salvation that is being worked out through your daily sanctification. This security will be consummated in final salvation when you are glorified in His eternal presence.

Someone described Christian perseverance this way: “Keep on keeping on!” This is only possible because you and I are being kept by God!

Great Gospel Words - "The Rock"

Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,
for You have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
Psalm 61:1-3

Jesus is famous for His “I am” sayings in the Gospel of John. “I am the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Door for the Sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way and the Truth and the Life, the True Vine” are all heard from the lips of Jesus in John’s Gospel.

Although He never directly said, “I am the Rock!” we are on solid Biblical ground to assert that Jesus is the Rock. This word picture presents compelling truth about the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before we glean a few spiritual truths contained in this picture of Christ, let’s establish the Biblical certainty that stands behind this great Gospel word. The first rock photograph in our Biblical picture album records one of the many miracles provided by God during the time of the Exodus and Israel’s time in the wilderness.

The Lord said, “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." Exodus 17:6.

What a picture! Work gushes forth from a rock. The thirsty people are saved from dying of thirst and dehydration. This water was not luxury, it was a necessity.

While Paul is teaching the Corinthians God’s Word, he holds up this picture. As he explains what happened, he reveals that this Rock was Christ.
For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:4b

So, when the Psalmist writes “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,” he says, “Lead me to Christ, who is higher that I.”

Christ, the Rock, is SALVATION – 1 Peter 2:4-7

In presenting Jesus as the Rock, Peter employs a synonym. He calls Jesus a Living Stone. This Living Stone was rejected by men. This rejection culminated at the cross. With that in mind, carefully read the following verses:

As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone…" 1 Peter 2:4-7

As we come to Him, the Rock, the Living Stone, Who has become the Cornerstone, we believe in Him and are saved.

In our sin and depravity, we are in the pit of destruction. We are lower than low. There is no escape that we can fashion for ourselves from this slimy, slippery pit.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. Psalm 40:2

And that Rock was Christ. Lord, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. Lord, lead me to Christ – the only place that salvation can be experienced.

Christ, the Rock, is STABILITY – Matthew 7:24-27

Coming to Christ does not make us immune to the storms and struggles of life. But it does provide us with stability in the midst of the storms and struggles. Since Christ is the Rock, His Words provide the solid foundation for stability that we desperately need.

Jesus said, "Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Matthew 7:24-27

The exact same rains, floods and winds assaulted both houses. One fell with a great crash. The other stood strong against the storms since it was built on the Rock.

And this Rock is Christ. Lord, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I – the only place where stability can be found.

Christ, the Rock, is SECURITY – Matthew 16:15-18

With a declaration given to him by God Himself, Peter stated regarding Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” To which our Lord responded… “…and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (see Matthew 16:15-18)

This phrase - “The gates of hell” - represents Satan and all of his nefarious schemes and ploys to destroy you and your faith. He is far more powerful that we are. If we had to fight him on our own power we would lose. But we don’t fight with our own power. As Christ’s church (remember, the church is not the building) we take at face value that Satan will not prevail over the Rock. The victory of the Rock is our confidence in our spiritual battles.

And this Rock is Christ. Lord, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I - the only place where security, eternal security - can be found.

On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

O Lord, lead me to the Rock, Who is higher than I! Lead me to Jesus.