JOY FROM RECEIVING THE GOSPEL
[p. 502] JOY FROM RECEIVING THE GOSPEL
Luke 15:7; Acts 8:8; Acts 13:52
In undertaking this service there has been much prayer, and may the result be joy from the gospel experienced! Luke is taken up by the Spirit of God to present the evangelical features of Christ’s ministry. He was not an apostle but he was very affected by Paul’s gospel, “God’s glad tidings ... concerning his Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:1-4). It is Paul who speaks of “the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God” (Titus 3:4). These words might be hyphenated as conveying one great thought: God’s kindness-and-love-to-man. Luke has man before him in his narrative, and he connects joy with it from the very beginning, telling us of the incident of shepherds in the days of Christ’s birth keeping their flocks by night and that the angel of God was there by them. It does not say he came, he was there, that was the important matter, he “was there by them” (Luke 2:9). And the glory of the Lord shone around them, which was a very remarkable incident, an incident that reminds us of heaven’s attitude at that time. Many crises have arisen from Adam down which moved heaven. The windows of heaven were open in the days of the deluge. Very important days, too. Heaven was often interested, providentially interested, in occurrences on earth, but never as much as when Jesus was born. The angel said to the shepherds, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour”. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy”; that is a fine expression. The very term “glad tidings” involves joy, but he says, great joy”, and that is the key to the gospel, that it carries “great joy”. It carries other things, but all occasion joy. The gospel carries with it grace, the tidings of grace, and grace involves that the person who is a great sinner may be relieved of his sins at once; if he is really judging them, if they are a burden upon him,
[p. 503] if they are weighing him down, causing him distress, there is relief from them and joy. Those of us who have not had this experience are very poor christians. So that what the angel said involved many things. “I bring you good tidings of great joy ... For unto you” not simply unto men, unto the nations, but to the persons there. That is the point of this meeting tonight, the persons that are here. Scripture always contemplates directly the persons who are reading it. And so the gospel always contemplates those who are listening to it and so one hopes there is a message for all in this audience.
Luke begins, according to the angel’s word, with “great joy”. The Lord takes up the golden thought in the verse I read in the fifteenth chapter. The man called his neighbours together, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost”. I went after it and I found it. Luke says, “I have found my sheep”, but Matthew 18:13 says, “And if so be that he find it”. This latter is a very solemn and searching word, for it means that he might not find it. Matthew has someone in mind that should be at this meeting. Instead of being here he is away at a card party, or in bad company otherwise, and the Lord does not find him. So that Matthew says “if” he finds him. The sheep is lost and the shepherd goes after the sheep. If the sheep lives in San Francisco, the Lord sets out to find him in San Francisco. He ought to be where the Lord intends him to be. The young man or the young woman should be under his parents’ control. Instead of this, when the Lord comes to the place he is not there, but in some bad company, the theatre, or some picture show, but he is not there. Thus the Lord does not find him. That is what Matthew says, Matthew implies that possibility. But Luke does not have that in mind.
Luke says in this chapter, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that [p. 504] which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it,” (that is, he does find it) “he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing”. That is his burden. The parable goes on; “And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost”. It is a finished matter. It is a fine piece of work of the great Shepherd, that is the parable. The direct teaching of the parable is in the verse I have read: “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance”. That is the teaching of the parable and its teaching covers a wide field of persons who do not realize their need of a saviour, who do not realize that they are sinners, who do not admit the great statement of Scripture that, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). There are a large number of those in this town, a large number, and in the next town to them a large number, and in the town across the bay a very large number who have not come to the definite conclusion that the Scriptures are true, that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. And so the Lord, in order to enforce this great truth, furnishes later another parable: two men went up to the temple to pray, one a pharisee and the other a publican. The publican is a tax-gatherer, an odious kind of a man, for he is apt to exact more than is due. The word pharisee pertains to a sect, and the sadducees were another sect. These were the leading sects at the time our Lord was on the earth. The pharisees believed in the Bible. We thank God for those who believe in the Bible. The devil exercises a great effort to discredit the Bible. The schools and the colleges are much employed to this end; so that we are thankful for anyone who believes the Bible. The Ethiopian eunuch was of great account in his own kingdom, and on his way back from Jerusalem he read the Bible. This man was a great statesman in those days, and he had a Bible. I always [p. 505] feel that taking out my Bible in the railway is like a flag. And this man was reading his Bible. I have known men coming out from the old country who put the Bibles their mothers gave them as far down in the trunk as possible and left them there, but this man did not do that, he read it and he read a good text too. “Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed? ... He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers” (Isaiah 53:1,7). The evangelist says to him, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” He answered, “How should I then be able unless some one guide me?” Philip sat by his side and announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him (Acts 8:26-38).
Well, the pharisees believed in the Bible; they were orthodox. The sadducees were like many modernists that do not believe in angel or spirit, they do not believe in resurrection of the dead. It is a terrible thing that anyone should deny the resurrection from the dead. Everyone would be lost from Adam onward, if there is no resurrection. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). This wicked doctrine makes man like the horse and the dog; the sadducees were among them. But the pharisees were hardly better for they placed themselves beyond the pale of salvation in refusing to own themselves sinners. They were the ninety-nine just persons who had no need of repentance; the opposing people that need no saviour to die for them. One of them says, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as the rest of men” (Luke 18:11). That prayer does not go above the ceiling. Well, the publican was ashamed to lift up his eyes even to heaven because he knew he was a sinner.
Heaven takes great interest in sinners. The greatest of sinners, Paul, said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). A light shone round about Saul of Tarsus, and the Lord Jesus speaks to him. Such was the interest in a man [p. 506] who confessed himself as the greatest sinner. He got converted, and on that very day his sins were all washed away. It was by the Son of God, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). And so this man that I have alluded to in Luke 18 said, “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner.” He is not talking of any other person in the universe but himself. He had learned his lesson.
It is the repenting sinner, the confessing sinner that is saved. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, the blackest and worst of them. The Lord Jesus with His own lips tells us that “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other”. Is there not one here tonight that wants to be justified freely by God’s grace that is in Christ Jesus? It is to all, and upon all those that believe. There is repentance, the acknowledgment of guilt, and consequently “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:24,25). Some opponents of the truth would say you are bringing us to the idea of a shambles; they wish to set aside the precious meaning of the blood of Jesus. There is no forgiveness and no justification without blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It is for us to appropriate it by faith. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”. It was the Lord Himself, having become a Man who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And now the gospel is “towards all, and upon all those who believe” (Romans 3:22).
Well, according to the Lord’s own word: “likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth”. One sitting in his seat listening to me, who turns to God as a sinner before God, will begin to make history in heaven. There are no newspapers published up there,
[p. 507] but history is made every day by repenting sinners. Heaven is aglow as sinners in their localities repent. The joy goes out as one in this town, or in the other towns confesses himself a sinner. Heaven is made joyful. The Lord’s own words are: “joy shall be in heaven” and farther on “joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”. Is there not joy for everyone here who turns to the Saviour? There is joy in heaven, and the angels see it, they see it in the face of Jesus. Angels see the face of Jesus, and they know that someone has repented because of joy in that face. It is very precious. Every christian ought to recall the joy that was in heaven as he repented.
The next thing is joy in a city. Acts 8:8 says: “And there was great joy in that city”. That was the city of Samaria. There has never been such a time of cities as the present time. Cities are larger than they have ever been, but it cannot be said of any one of them that it is characteristically marked by great joy because of men turning to God through the gospel. It is a very remarkable fact that this city of Samaria was said to be full of joy, and the cause of that joy was the gospel; not that the circus had come to town, or any other such human event. This was not that. Philip preached Christ; there was no political address, no tirade on the war. It was the preaching of the Christ and the deliverance accompanying it that caused the joy, the effect of grace on those stricken by sin and Satan. Unclean spirits went out of many, crying with a loud voice; and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. All this happened in that town, and the town became joyous. No wonder! I do not suppose that for centuries it could be said that there had been great joy in Samaria. But now it is there because of the preaching of Christ, and its effect. The first effect was on “unclean spirits”. They went out, “crying with a loud voice”. People say there are no such things today as persons possessed with unclean, spirits. It is certain that there are such. Cities [p. 508] are marked by this. The Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh came through Decapolis. Decapolis was a province of ten cities. In cities people may be seen waiting to get into a theatre even in the rain! Cities are centres of sin. No thought marks them of salvation or the need of it. The Lord had just been up near Tyre, the place of commerce, and He met a woman who said to Him that her daughter had an unclean spirit, and she was greatly distressed about it, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David”. How many daughters are like that! They go out at night dishonouring their parents, and the devil gets into them. The gospel is nothing to them; their parents are nothing to them; the devil provides for them. And there was this girl with an unclean spirit, and the mother felt it; thank God for that mother! She said “Lord, help me.” She was a Syrophenician having no claim on him naturally, and hence He said, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs”. “And she said, Truth, Lord:” that is the point, dear friends, the acknowledgment of the truth. It is most difficult to get people to accept the truth. It is the truth as to God, the truth as to Christ, the truth as to yourself, the truth as to the devil, and the truth as to eternal punishment too. But this woman bowed to it saying, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table”. She went the full length of the confession that was needed in referring to the dogs under the table. How humbly she accepted her place! The Lord said to her, “Because of this word, go thy way, the demon is gone out of thy daughter” (Matthew 15:22-28). It is a question of confession of the truth. Repentance is a great thought.
And now the Lord is dealing with persons who are unclean in the city of Samaria. Unclean spirits went out of them. Besides that, paralysed people and lame people were healed. They appropriated what God made available to them, like the man who carried his bed (Mark 2:10-12). Thus there was great joy in that city.
[p. 509] Now I pass on to show that there was joy in certain disciples. A christian characteristically is marked by joy. Of course we all know how to be sorrowful and weak, but christianity implies great joy, and in this case we are told that the apostles Paul and Barnabas were preaching, and as the Jews through envy opposed, they said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be first spoken to you; but, since ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the nations” (verse 46). “And those of the nations hearing it, rejoiced, and glorified the word of the Lord, and believed, as many as were ordained to eternal life” (verse 48). Being “ordained to eternal life” is a new thought in the history of the gospel in this book. Every christian knows, or should know, that he has been ordained to eternal life. Paul says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:29,30). These are great and blessed christian truths, and we stand upon them as belonging to our sure Rock of salvation. Is there anybody here who has not come to the Lord and confessed? The point for you is to believe and repent. Repent, says the Lord Jesus, and believe in the gospel. It is for you, whoever you be. Thus you will accept the precious truth of ordination to eternal life as applying to you. The first point for you is to believe. The Spirit of God says here, repent, and believe the gospel. The Spirit says, “as many as were ordained to eternal life” believed. It is a feature of those that were ordained that they believed. So the word is to everyone here tonight, “Repent and believe in the glad tidings” (Mark 1:15). Heaven will then put a label on you, as it were, “Ordained to eternal life”. I would not give up that truth for anything, it is as a solid rock to my soul. The Lord [p. 510] Jesus says, I give unto my sheep eternal life. Seventy, eighty, ninety years is not even like a drop in the ocean of eternity. Ninety years, and then you go where? Believers go into eternal life; but not only go into it then, but have it now, through faith realizing it by the Spirit. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal” (John 3:16). What a gospel! Can anybody be without it? One hundred years is hardly like a drop in the ocean as regards time and eternity; and if you die in your sins you will be raised in your sins. There will then be no forgiveness, thence you will go away into eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46). Do not therefore put the gospel away from you. It is for your own eternal welfare to accept it. It is for you to escape eternal fire. We read of “Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). In our scripture we read that the word of the Lord was carried through the whole country. “But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit”. That is what one would hope to be the result in some little way here tonight. Notice the disciples. Every true christian is a disciple and we are to be filled with joy. This is the characteristic result of the reception of the gospel. They believed and were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. This is no cheap or trivial matter. It is of the greatest importance, and it is supreme folly to ignore it. It has cost Christ infinitely, for He “died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). So that we are to be filled with joy now and throughout eternity with Christ.