If you’ll turn with me in your Bibles, our first scripture this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke, the third chapter, beginning with the seventh verse. We are again talking about and hearing about John the Baptist. John said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able to raise up from these stones children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’
And the crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’ He answered them, ‘Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.’ Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than you are authorized to.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.’
As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to gather his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.
From the Gospel of Luke, we turn again to Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the fourth chapter, beginning in the fourth verse. Paul writes, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.’
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you have given us reason to rejoice. You have given us many good things to consider and contemplate, and you have given us many examples in the faith and the perfect example of your Son, Jesus, for us to follow and obey. Help us to become more and more like Christ throughout our days and open our ears and open our hearts to receive your word for us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Rejoice! Christ has come! You awake now! Rejoice! Jesus is coming! Rejoice in the Lord always; the Lord is at hand! He has come, he is coming, and he is here with us now. This is why we can rejoice. This is why the Christian feels such joy in their heart that they feel they must share it; otherwise, we just might burst! Because we have the promise of his second advent. The Apostle Paul emphatically tells us to rejoice in the Lord always and to let our reasonableness be known to everyone. But why? Because the Lord is at hand!
But is that really such a joyous thing? Is that something to rejoice over? For some yes, for others not so much. For others, the presence of Jesus is the exact opposite of joy; it is a cause for fear, dread, or terror, for wailing and the gnashing of teeth. For the elect, the presence and our anticipated coming of King Jesus is something joyous, but for the reprobate, for the unrepentant, unregenerate ones who are not called into Christ’s salvation, the coming judgment of God is not a pleasant prospect at all.
John the Baptizer asked the crowds who came to him down by the Jordan River, ‘Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ The answer was Isaiah and every single one of the other prophets from Moses onward. The answer is the inner workings of the Holy Spirit upon those whom God is calling in faith and a new life in Christ. Without this calling by the Holy Spirit, without a change being worked into and in through our heart, they would not have come down to John, and we would not come to Christ. We would not, and we will not flee God’s wrath on our own because in our sinful nature, we enjoy our sin too much.
We come to Christ because God himself has separated us out like wheat from the chaff. His winnowing fork is very discriminate; it is intentional. He separates with purpose to rescue, and preserve his chosen people and save us from the fire to which we are otherwise subject. We, as human sinners, are totally depraved, meaning that there is no part of us—not one part—which is not tainted and corrupted by our sin. Not meaning that we are as bad as we can possibly be, we can all be much worse than we are, but making us ripe for judgment, rightly deserving of all of his divine wrath, except for his gracious and unconditional election.
The people of Judea during the days of John were people walking in darkness and so are every one of us before we finally see and receive the light of Christ. Until we see that light, we cannot and will not move towards it. While we love the world, we will never flee towards Jesus until a love for Christ is born inside us. We will never flee from our sin or the judgment due to the world and due to us according to the world.
Repentance is not a virtue; godly living is not a virtue according to the world. Instead, the world promotes every single sin as a virtue. Like what actor Michael Douglas proclaimed as the character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street, saying, ‘Greed is good.’ Meaning that to the world, having two tunics is a good thing, even when someone else might have none. It is better to collect as much money as you can from others, even more than you are required to, because then you get to keep the extra.
Or don’t be happy or satisfied with what you earn as your wage; instead, maximize your potential income in any and every way that you can. That is what the world calls normal and good and right. Now, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—wrong, bad, or sinful about having financial gain or being prosperous; far from it. In fact, it is sinful when it is done at the expense of others. Money is not the root of all evil; it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil.
Whenever we give into these temptations, whenever we harm others or fail to help others when we are able, then we are doing violence to the image of God within them. So yes, that is sin, and that is what the unregenerate heart always wants to do. The unregenerate heart is all about ‘me, me, me,’ and never about ‘them, them, them.’
There is no such thing as good for goodness’ sake because to or about a reprobate, even those things which we might call good are always and always the answer to the age-old question of human motivation with them. ‘What’s in it for me?’ Game theory and every other system that has ever tried to understand why people do the things that they do always find this same answer: ‘With them.’ All the way back to the Garden of Eden when Eve mistakenly believed that God was denying her and Adam something that they needed or deserved—the knowledge of good and evil—believing that God was holding them back and keeping them from being like God, even though they were created in His image as His image bearers, as His human representatives on earth and over all of creation.
Adam and Eve thought that by being obedient, by not eating the forbidden fruit, they were somehow lessened or missing something. But yet that if they ate, then they would be gaining something desirable. Unfortunately for all humanity ever since, what was in it by sinning for them and for us is only condemnation, judgment, wrath. But in His mercy, the Lord still preserved them even in the midst of His judgment.
More is often less while less is frequently more. Addition is not always a positive while subtraction is not always a negative. Adam’s addition of a sinful nature to his and our humanity was not a good thing, but Christ’s removal of our sin guilt, dying to sin for us, subtracting that stain and weight from our souls, is truly the most good thing we have all been given.
The warning has been given, but not all can hear or will heed it until we believe the threat of judgment is credible, for it is not a threat but a divine promise. Until we believe that the Lord alone is God and that we sinful people have transgressed His commandments and that He is coming for His recompense because vengeance is His, until faith in the Lord Jesus is born within us, we will prefer to remain in darkness. We will prefer to enjoy the bitter fruits of our sin and be satisfied to collect our wage of death.
So those people who came to be baptized by John, who were trying to heed the warning of God in faith, did not come to him in order to follow the normal path. They came to be different and to take a public stand upon that difference against the whole world because something within them had changed. That something was their receipt of the call of God upon their hearts, for they had received an irresistible gift of grace.
When God picks you for His team, you are well and truly drafted; you will never want to opt out. Who could or how could anyone possibly refuse the only omnipotent God if and when He wants to bless you with the salvation found in Christ Jesus alone? The call to the salvation of God is offered to all, but it is only those with ears to hear and eyes to see who see the light and respond to it in faith.
Salvation is freely offered to all, but only those within whom God the Holy Spirit fosters a desire will come to be saved. They are the only ones who want to be saved. John the Baptizer, when speaking of the Christ to come, said, ‘I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’
His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. John clearly understood and taught that there are some folks who will be saved, protected, and preserved by grace—the wheat—while there are others who will be destroyed in judgment—the chaff.
The atonement of Christ is satisfactory to cover all the sins of the whole world, but it is limited in application to only the elect of God. The wheat is separated from the chaff, and His saints will be preserved while the wicked will be consumed in the fires of judgment and divine punishment. This is the good news, the gospel that John preached to the people.
This is why we Christians can, should, and must rejoice in the Lord always, for Christ will always preserve and persevere His people through and beyond the very end. It is the promised perseverance of the saints by Christ that is a cause of such joy within every Christian. This is the why and how for us to rejoice in the Lord always because the Lord is at hand.
Christ, being with His people, is a promise often repeated in Scripture. God promises this to Isaac when He reaffirms the covenant of grace to Abraham. God promises this to Moses while speaking from within the burning bush and commissioning him to go before Pharaoh. God reaffirms this promise to Joshua as he succeeded Moses and prepared to lead the sons of Israel across the Jordan River. God promises this to Gideon before sending him against the Midianites. Through the prophet Isaiah, God extends this promise to all His people Israel.
Most memorably, Jesus’s final words to His disciples in Matthew’s Gospel are, ‘And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age,’ which helps us to understand and better appreciate the Trinitarian promise from John 14, where Jesus also says, ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You will know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’
God is with us. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. Jesus Christ is our Emmanuel.
Well reigns, let men their songs employ. This joy is why we never need be anxious over anything. This joy is what comes from our hope and our faith in Christ alone. In Him, we have a great high priest. We have an advocate. We have an elder brother who is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Is it no wonder then that we may take everything to Him by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving? We may take it to the Lord in prayer and be assured in hope that He will always give us exactly what we need by His gracious provision out of the great store of love for His adopted children. Our Lord keeps us, preserves us, and perseveres us for Himself and His glory alone.
The world around us has been broken ever since the fall of Adam, and while daily it seems like it is falling to even tinier pieces around us, we know by the promises of sacred scripture that according to His holy will and by His power, we are becoming unbroken, restored, renewed, and redeemed. We are being sanctified, made holy for eternal life in His kingdom. We are safe and secure, resting in the palm of His hand, and we are provided for, and we are made whole—whole within ourselves and whole together in and with Christ.
Now, this past week during our prime time soup and study, Dr. Nichols on our DVD remarked about a people group somewhere in Africa who refer to the Christians that they have known as being ‘the people who sing.’ They were called such because uniquely among other people groups, the Christians, and particularly the native African Christians, were such a happy, joy-filled people that they could and would often sing. They would sing just because, despite all the issues they faced, especially their daily survival related issues.
Singing may well be the greatest means for humans to express joy and our joy in the Lord. Taking its inspiration from Luke 12:6—’Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies, and not one of them is forgotten before God?’—the refrain of our hymn number 624 goes, ‘I sing because I’m happy; I sing because I’m free. For his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.’
We Christians are so blessed to find and take our joy in the Lord instead of living in fear and the dread of His justice. We are filled with this joy knowing that our sins are forgiven, that they have been washed away and are remembered no more. We are filled with this joy because of our justification by faith in Christ Jesus. By Him, we are declared to be righteous, and so as He takes His joy in us, His treasured possessions, so we too must and will overflow with our joy in Him.
Thus, we sing now and we’ll sing in countless ages to come with all the saints gathered together around His throne: ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.’
We sing out to our Savior from the depths of these deep waters of joy that we feel united in Christ and preserved by Him in love.
Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously! Let this be made known in all the earth! Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion! For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
This joy we feel inspires us to more than just to sing but to live new and changed lives. This joy changes our attitudes and our outlook on life. We may find the godly positive in every circumstance and focus on that. We may find and appreciate the things that are good, excellent, and worthy of praise even here in this broken world.
Our hearts and minds are buoyed up by this joy instead of being weighed down by the cares of this life and the troubles of this world. We are filled with this joy; it feeds our souls and causes us to grow big and tall and strong for Him. Our souls are fed by this joy so that we will produce good fruit for our King—the spiritual fruits of love for our neighbors, inspiring the joy of Christ in others, working for peace and restoration in the world and in our relationships—by being patient, showing kindness to those less fortunate than ourselves, practicing self-control in all of our behaviors and habits, and expressing the goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness of Christ as one of our means for preaching the gospel.
So we who are the wheat believe that the chaff, like Gordon Gekko, are truly wrong. Instead, share your excess with those who have a lack. Do your duty and live out your vocation for God’s glory without going beyond the bounds of your mandate. Be satisfied with what you have; your Father in heaven has provided you with what you need, even if it is not all that you may wish. It is enough. Repent and seek the Lord’s presence and joy, and then be filled.
Then, whenever the world gets you down, when troubles rear their ugly heads, when we suffer loss or heartache, we may reach down deep and draw water up from this wellspring of joy that has been fixed within our hearts. Surrounded by the waters of His joy in us, we will be and are sustained by our King Jesus until the day of His second advent.
So rejoice! You have been chosen in love and called by Christ Jesus purely out of His irresistible grace and mercy. Rejoice! Your depravity and sin have been atoned for by Jesus Christ. You have been changed and are no longer what or who you once were.
Rejoice! Jesus will continue to preserve you beyond the end; no enemy will snatch you away from His omnipotent hands. Rejoice! Shout and sing for joy, people of Christ! As Johnny and June Carter Cash used to sing, ‘Singing seems to help a troubled soul.’ One of these days, and it won’t be long, we will all join them in a song. We’re going to join the family circle at the throne. No, the circle won’t be broken by and by, Lord, by and by.
Rejoice! The circle surrounding Christ and His people will never be broken, for Christ preserves His people forever and ever. Amen.