Fellowship of Joy in the Person of Christ (Part 1)

Well, take your Bibles this morning and open them to our text for this morning.

Philippians chapter 3. And I'm going to read verses 1 through 11. Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 through 11. We've seen the fellowship of joy in prayer, in persecution, in perfection.

Last week, the fellowship of joy in people. And now our subject for the next really couple of Sundays, maybe three.

The fellowship of joy in the person of Christ. Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 through 11. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers.

Beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcised the eighth day of the flock of Israel.

Of the tribe of Benjamin, of Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ.

Be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which is from God by faith.

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

That's a big text. There's a lot there. Incredible passage of Scripture. Now, I would say at the beginning here that the word finally should cause us to chuckle just a little bit.

A little boy was sitting in church one Sunday morning, and he whispered to his dad, he said, when the preacher says finally, what does he mean? And his dad said, absolutely nothing, son. Nothing.

Nothing. And I guess I would have to say that's true. But now, Paul was a preacher after all, right? He was a preacher, and so it does seem that Paul is telling us that he's just about to wrap things up here, that he's about to finish, about to conclude, when really he still has a whole lot more to say to us.

In fact, he has barely passed the halfway mark in the letter. I don't know if you've noticed that. He has written 60 verses, and he still has 44 more to go.

So that's quite a bit of the letter. But we need to understand here that the word finally is a word of transition, not a word of conclusion.

At least, the word that Paul used means that. It's loipos in the Greek, and a more literal translation would be, as for the rest.

That is, as for the rest of what I have to say. And that's what he means. It's kind of a transition. Though it's not broken from what he's already said. There's not a separation.

We're not now diving into a new subject. He just has more to say. And so he says, as for the rest of it, here's what I want to say to you. And what does he want to say to us?

Rejoice in the Lord. We might translate it this way. Let me say this. Rejoice in the Lord. And notice that Paul introduces the rest of what he has to say here.

He introduces it with a command. You may have missed that in the English text, but this is a command. In fact, it's not hard to miss. I mean, it's very clear. Rejoice.

And the verb rejoice is in the imperative. And that means this is a command. So he introduces this section of the letter, chapter 3, and really carrying on into chapter 4.

He introduces it with a command. This is a command. And so by way of introduction, let me just say a few things about this command. This command.

Because, really, I must lay this foundation in your minds before we're ready to get the real meat of this passage.

Let's lay the foundation here. Because everything depends upon this. First, the significance of this command. This is a very significant command.

We might read this, and if we're not careful, we might just completely miss the significance of this command.

It's very natural for us to do that. Most Bible theologians, by the way, old and new, have identified chapter 3 as the, quote, apex of the letter.

Or the summit of the letter. Or put it in these terms, Paul brings his readers, at this point in the letter, Paul brings us, his readers, to the very peak of the mountain of doctrine that he gives us in this wonderful letter.

And this is why there's almost universal agreement that joy is the subject of the letter. Now, I've been saying that all along.

That's not new. And there are some other indicators of the letter that reveal this. But this, really, here, verse 1, helps us understand clearly what Paul's subject is.

It's joy. You say the word rejoice. What does that mean? It means to have joy. To be joyful. And that is exactly my point here.

What is this joy? We've got to lay this foundation in our minds. We've got to come to an understanding of Paul's meaning here. What is this joy?

What is the reason for this joy? What is the object of this joy? What's the source of it? And more significantly, if this is a command, and it is, then how can we obey it?

How can we obey this command to rejoice? And that is an important question, isn't it?

That is, if you haven't just read this and passed over it, and thought, well, this is just part of, you know, kind of Paul's speaking. But if you'll grasp the significance of this command, then you must ask the question, how do I obey it?

And that is also important when you begin to consider the subjects of the command. The subjects.

That is, to whom the command was given. For us to get the significance of this command, we need to understand or consider the subjects.

Something about the subjects of the command. Again, I've already given you one point of grammar concerning the verb. Let me give you another. The grammatical form of this verb is second person plural.

Is that important? Well, it is. Because literally Paul is saying, you all, all of you, every one of you, rejoice.

Rejoice. Not just those of you who are able to. Not just those of you who maybe are free to rejoice because of your set of circumstances.

Or the lack thereof. But all of you. He leaves no one out. He's writing this letter to the church. And not just the church at Philippi, but he's writing it to you, this church, Highland Park Baptist Church.

And he's saying to you, all of you, plural, rejoice. Paul is speaking to the Philippian believers first and foremost, of course, initially.

And so that's why I think we need to consider something about the subjects of this command. What do we know about the Philippian believers? What do we know directly from the letter?

But what can we assume, really, I think, safely assume about all first century believers in Christ? What do we know about them? Well, we know that they had a hard life.

Difficult life. And when we know that, understand that, then we understand that this command is a challenging one. But also, I think we understand that this command is extraordinary.

In light of the subjects, in light of what we know about the church at Philippi. In the first place, they were poor. That almost goes without saying.

Now, few of them were not. There were some wealthy. But most of them were poor. Most of them were poor, as most Christians were in this day, first century.

Many of them were slaves. We also know that they were persecuted. Paul mentions a little bit about that in the letter in a couple of places. And some of it is stated very explicitly.

Some of it implied. But they were persecuted for their faith. And we also know that they were peripheral in their society.

Peripheral at best. And that is, I mean to say that no one gave them any respect in their culture, in their society.

They were the fringe. They were peripheralized. That is, they had no voice in their culture. That sounds a little bit familiar, doesn't it? And add to that, their Hebrew in the faith, Paul, where was he?

In prison. Their pastor, their spiritual father in the faith, their beloved Paul. Where was he when they needed him the most?

In prison. That in itself, very discouraging. Very disheartening. So what does Paul say to them? What's Paul's word to them?

Rejoice! Rejoice, my brethren. Rejoice in the Lord. Extraordinary. How helpful is that? In light of all of these things they were facing.

And you know, things are not all that easy for believers in the 21st century, are they? Not even in America. I mean, let's just consider where we live right now.

Now, most Christians, admittedly, in America are not poor. At least not by any credible measurement of poverty, we're not poor. But I would say that we are living in troubling times when it comes to the economic welfare and future of America.

I think we'd have to agree with that. And not just America in general, but our own economic future. We live in uncertain times, do we not?

Financially speaking, economically speaking. The stock market, our retirement funds, the cost of everything. Food and gas and just about everything you want to buy.

The cost of health care continuing to rise. The national debt. The national deficit that we hear about all the time. We live in troubling times economically here in America.

Christians are a part of that. I think perhaps for the first time in our history, we can conceive of the utter failure of America. I think we can conceive of that.

I don't think it's around the corner. And I'm not trying to scare anybody. But for the first time, I'm saying for the first time in our history, we can conceive of that. What was once inconceivable, unthinkable, is even now knocking at the door.

And also, most Christians in America are not experiencing persecution. Not really. Not certainly to the degree that we know about in many other parts of the world.

Absolutely not. And yet, it is happening here. It is happening in pockets. And in general, I think we're seeing persecution.

And certainly the threat of persecution on the increase. In our culture. In this, quote, Christian nation. And you would have to agree with me, I think, that the Christian community is becoming more and more peripheral in our society.

Kind of on the fringe out there now. When once we dominated our culture, Christianity and Christian thinking and biblical values dominated our government, our culture, every aspect of it.

That was once true, but not true anymore. Our voices. That is the voice of biblical Christianity carries very little influence in our culture today.

Let's just face that. It's true. We are all but silenced in the public forum just on the basis that we are Christians. And so, any voice that we might want to put out there from the perspective of the Bible is considered religion.

And religion belongs in the church and nowhere else. And so, we are silenced then because we're Christians. We have a Christian perspective, a biblical worldview.

We're silenced on the basis of Christianity. We have no voice. And we're shouted down for that. We become peripheral in our society.

And then, besides all of that, life is just hard sometimes. Isn't it? Deaths. Diseases. Difficult issues in life.

Spiritual darkness all around us. And Paul says, yes, I know all about that. And here's what to do.

Rejoice. Rejoice. That's what he says. And you say, and I say, that helps me. How? Exactly.

Well, let me say one other thing about this command. Again, by way of introduction. We're laying the foundation for what Paul's going to tell us. What he's going to teach us.

How he's going to help us. One other thing about this command. That is, not only the significance in the subjects of the command, but the substance of it. We've got to get down to the nitty gritty of this command.

Just what is this command, really? The substance of it. There is more to the grammatical form of this verb that helps us in the meaning.

It is, technically speaking, present active. Present active. That means two things. It means, in the first place, that it's a continuous action.

Paul means for this to be a continuing thing. An ongoing thing. Not just a once in a while thing, but an ongoing thing. Not just something that fits the occasion or the circumstance or when you're able to, but always ongoing.

It's rejoice. It's rejoice. Rejoice and keep on rejoicing. Today. Tomorrow. Always. No matter what.

That's what he means. Paul is going to write a little bit later in this letter. Philippians chapter 4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Then what does he say? Rejoice. Amen. I say rejoice. That's right. Just in case you didn't get it. Rejoice always. It's continuous.

It's an ongoing thing. But also this verb is active as opposed to passive. That means, Paul is saying, this is something we are to deliberately do.

Consciously do. Premeditatedly do. Deliberately do. We are to rejoice as opposed to passive.

Something done to us. Or for us. Or in us. Or in behalf of us. And there are other things, of course, scripturally speaking, biblically speaking, that are passive.

But this is active. It's something we're to do. And so Paul says, again, putting this all together, all of you, every one of you, church, do this.

Do it. Do it every day. Do it no matter what. Keep on rejoicing. Rejoice and keep on rejoicing. But let's look a little closer at the text.

Rejoice. So far, we've not looked any further than the word rejoice. But something follows that. Something very important.

And it's absolutely crucial that we do not leave the word rejoice just standing there all alone. What follows the word rejoice? It is a prepositional phrase.

In your study of scripture, you should pay close attention to prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase is in the Lord.

You say that's important? Yeah, you bet. Paul said rejoice in the Lord. Paul is not commanding us to rejoice in our circumstances.

How morbid would that be? For instance, Lord, I'm so glad that my son was expelled from school. We're rejoicing in that. Or, Lord, I rejoice that my husband has had an affair and left me and the kids all alone.

We're just rejoicing in that set of circumstances. How morbid would that be? Or, Lord, I'm so glad that I lost my job and now my life savings and now my home.

I rejoice in that. In fact, our whole family is kind of caught up in the joy of that circumstance. You know, I get the impression sometimes that well-meaning Christians would have us do just that.

To rejoice in the circumstances. Now, admittedly, God does work through circumstances. God does allow circumstances to bring great things. And we ought to look at those things, certainly.

But we're not commanded to rejoice in the circumstances. And if you're doing that, you're lying anyway. You're trying to present yourself as more spiritual than you really are.

You're lying. And besides, again, God has not demanded that we rejoice in circumstances. God has demanded that we rejoice in Him.

In spite of the circumstances. That's what we need to understand here. That doesn't get us all the way yet. That doesn't help us understand all of this command and how to obey it.

But at least we're understanding the substance of it. That we are to rejoice in Him in spite of the circumstances. In the midst of our circumstances.

That's the substance of this command. But now, that's not really what we want to hear, is it? What we want to hear is, how are things going to get better?

In fact, that's what we want. We want things to get better. We want our suffering to end. We want to somehow know some formula for how to avoid hard things and sufferings.

And then when we're in the midst of them, we want to know how to get that out of here. So, that's what we want to hear. And the reason is, because quite honestly, and this includes all of us, we are so earthbound in our thinking.

When it comes to our Christianity, we allow our circumstances to define our faithfulness. And not only earthbound, but we are, to use another metaphor, nearsighted in our Christianity, in our focus when it comes to Christianity.

And that is, we cannot or we simply refuse to see beyond our close, immediate circumstances. To see beyond them.

And so, what do we do? We allow our immediate close circumstances, the now, the things that are happening now. We allow those things to dictate and to form our outlook on life.

Like looking through a certain colored lens. And this is exactly what Paul is addressing in chapter 3. This is no pious platitude.

Some well-meaning believer might use it as a pious platitude. Rejoice in the Lord. You know, they just come to you. You're having a hard time. Or you've just had a great loss. Or, you know, whatever it is.

And they'll put their arm around you. Just rejoice in the Lord. That's a pious platitude. Usually. This is no pious platitude. Paul did not mean it in that sense.

This is not preacher speak. Paul is a preacher, but this isn't just religious speak here. Rejoice in the Lord. You know, rejoice in the Lord.

Something you put on a plaque. And that's all it really means to you. Paul means it. This is issued by way of a command.

And he is absolutely definite. He means it. Rejoice in the Lord.

And he repeats it in verse 3. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. And what he means is, in general sense, rejoice in the person of Christ.

Rejoice that is immersed in Him. Your whole life immersed in Him.

Someone has said that in the Lord, that phrase, in the Lord, is the Christian's natural environment. I mean, we're saved in Christ.

We hope in Christ. We live in Christ. We love in Christ. We worship in Christ. We pray in Christ. We serve in Christ.

That is literally, we exist. We exist. Every part of us. Everything about us. We exist in the sphere of Christ.

Immersed in Christ. Acts 17, 28. For in Him we live and move and exist. Now, we need to get to the text.

All that was introduction. And here is the question that we want to answer. How is it possible to obey this command?

Always. How is it possible to rejoice in the Lord while bad things are happening to us and happening all around us?

How? How? Well, Paul tells us how. In fact, in Paul's life, he has boiled it all down to three things.

He has distilled it all down, boiled it all down to these three things. Three supreme priorities of life.

See if these are your priorities. If you and I will embrace these three priorities, we will be able to rejoice in the Lord no matter what.

That's what Paul is going to tell us. Three priorities. Let me name them here on the front end at the outset and we'll focus on one of them this morning.

Let's see. Introduction was long, but the sermon, I won't say short because that doesn't mean anything from the pulpit. Finally. All right. These three priorities.

Priority number one. Priority number one. What you should value more than anything else in this world.

That's priority number one. Priority number one. What you should value more than anything else in this world. Priority number two. What you should want to know more than anything else in this world.

And third, priority number three. What you should look forward to. Long for more than anything else in this world. Those are the three things that Paul has distilled it all down to.

When it comes to our ability, our power to obey this command. To rejoice no matter what. No matter what may come. What you should value more.

Want to know more. Long for more than anything else in this world. Let's consider the first of these this morning.

And it's a big one. That's why I can't get all three of them in. This is big stuff. Big stuff. Priority number one.

What you should value more than anything else in this world. Examine your life. Examine your heart. This is foundational to any power you and I might hope to have.

To rejoice in the Lord. No matter what may come. Let's look at verse one again. And let's just kind of walk through this. Finally, my brethren.

Rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious. That it's no trouble. But for you, it is safe.

The American Standard renders it a safeguard for you. And that's the idea. So to write the same thing, you know, several times. It's no trouble.

I don't tire of that. Because I know it's a safeguard for you. And then Paul identifies just one issue they were facing in the church.

It would be great to spend a lot of time on this particular issue. Maybe we'll do that another time. But I want to pass over this. But I want to at least name it.

It's one issue they were facing. One among many. Number? Or rather, verse 2. Beware of dogs. Not pets.

They didn't have a problem with any of the dog catcher. We're not talking about pets. We're talking about... He's talking about wild dogs. Vicious predators. We would call them maybe today junkyard dogs.

But he's not talking about the animal at all. It's a metaphor or an analogy. He's talking about false teachers in the church. Those who are teaching false doctrine.

And he says, beware of them. Beware of evil workers. Evil workers. That is, there were those in the church that were claiming to do good.

That they had a desire to do good. But in reality, their purpose was evil. It was evil to disrupt, to discourage the body, to destroy the body, to cause division in the body and so forth.

He said, beware of them. Evil workers in the church. And then he says, beware of the mutilation. What is that? The King James translates this concision.

Now that helps a lot, doesn't it? The concision. Beware of the concision. Well, the Greek word here means to cut up. That's why some translations use the word mutilation.

Cut. Cut up. But it is a reference to circumcision. All right. That's the reference because of what he says following this.

But it's clearly a reference to circumcision. And that's why the New American Standard translates this, beware of the false circumcision. That's the idea here.

False circumcision. Who are they? Well, they're Jews. They're Jews. The technical term is the Judaizers. And we're not going to get into that term this morning.

But these are just simply Jews who have a false profession of Christ. And they've come into the church. Maybe even in some sense have become members of the church.

They're Jews. But they have a false profession of faith. They are not true believers. They're Jews. So they've been circumcised. But Paul is saying that their circumcision is little more than a mutilation of their body.

As gross as that sounds. But that's what he's talking about. They thought that the circumcision was their salvation. And Paul is saying it's just really nothing but just a cutting.

Just a mutilation of the body. That's why it's translated beware of the mutilation. Because these Jews that have infiltrated the church, they're not true believers.

They've been circumcised in the flesh according to the law. But they're not circumcised in the heart. That is, their hearts are not truly God's. They're not right with God. And Paul says beware of them.

So this is an issue in the church. Something they had to face. Something caused them a lot of trouble. One of many things. Let's move on. Verse 3.

For we are the circumcision, he says. We are. That is the true circumcision. We're the true circumcision. That is the circumcision of the heart.

And then he kind of gives three evidences of that. We worship God in the spirit. That is, we're true worshipers. Remember Jesus said true worshipers worship me in spirit and in truth.

True worshipers. We're true worshipers. So we're the true circumcision. Second, we rejoice in Christ. And that's our subject here. We'll get to that in a minute. And we have no confidence in the flesh.

No confidence in our works and what we can do. No confidence in the flesh. We're true circumcision. Verse 4. He says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh. I more so. I more so. He's not bragging. He's going to make a point here. And then he gives a resume. Kind of his own personal resume.

Verse 5. Circumcised the eighth day. And he's right according to scripture. He's a Jew. Of the stock of Israel.

As you can trace my lineage all the way back to Jacob. And beyond. Of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews.

Man, I'm right up there. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. Concerning the law. A Pharisee. And that's what the Pharisees thought they were.

They were kind of the self-appointed guardians of God's law. In fact, they read the law. Interpreted the law. Added to the law.

Layers and layers and layers of laws to keep. So you can keep the laws and so forth. Ad nauseum. And Paul said, that's what I was. A Pharisee.

Concerning zeal. That is, zeal as a Jew. I mean, I expressed that and proved that to the nth degree.

I persecuted the church. Concerning righteousness which is in the law. That is, salvation. That is, by keeping the law.

Concerning that, blameless. So Paul really is, he's got quite a resume as a Jew. There's all the laws in the Bible and all those that are added.

I kept every one of them. Nobody could ever accuse me of breaking the law. This is his resume. But what Paul once counted as credits, he now counts as debits.

Put it in accounting vernacular. We have a few accountants in here. Or to put it this way, gains are now losses. And that's what he says in verse 7.

But what things were gained to me, all those things I listed, I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss.

All things. Really? Yeah, that's what Paul said. I count all things loss for... And here's where Paul's taking us.

This is what he wants us to get. Look at it. Verse 8. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the... What?

Excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That's a mouthful. I like the J.B. Phillips translation here.

Yes. And I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. We could use this, the surpassing value of it.

Can you say that? I mean, can you say what Paul just said? I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

Can you say that? Well, first, we need to know what he meant by that. Don't you think? Aren't you glad you didn't answer too quickly? What did he mean by that?

Well, in short, Paul is talking about salvation. Your salvation. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about...

Personally, he's talking about his salvation in Christ. Paul is talking about knowing Christ in a saving way.

Knowing Christ's saving. Not just knowing Christ or knowing about Christ. But, I mean, there are a whole lot of people who know about Christ. Don't they?

I mean, maybe they know a lot about him that you don't know. It's not knowing about him. But, see, they may know a lot about him, but they do not know him savingly.

That's what he's talking about. And so, if that's the case, notice just how he compares the value of all earthly things. All of them. Every one of them.

The value of all earthly things. Notice how he compares those things with the really incomparable value of knowing Jesus Christ savingly.

They don't compare. Look at it. The latter part of verse 8. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.

I love that word. Rubbish. If you have a King James, it's the word dumb. Ugh. Dumb. It's the word skubalon in the Greek.

And it means all refuse. All kinds of refuse. And it would include excrement of animals. This is pretty, pretty.

I mean, this is pretty graphic. This is how Paul compares the two. All things in this earth. All those things. Not just bad things.

Good things. He compares all of them in comparison to knowing Christ savingly. All things are, comparatively speaking, refuse.

Rubbish. Rubbish. Rubbish. Look at the last part of verse 8. That I may gain.

Rubbish compared to what? That I may gain Christ and be found in Him. That's why it's clear this knowledge of Christ is salvation.

To know Him savingly. That I may gain Christ and be found in Him. Look at it. Verse 8. This is rich. 8 and 9. Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law.

But that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which is from God by faith. Knowing Christ. Here's the idea.

Knowing Christ savingly is infinitely more valuable than any money you could ever accumulate.

Any possessions you could ever have or hope to have. Knowing Christ savingly.

Your salvation. Is infinitely more important than your town as a citizen. Your country. Your health.

Your wealth. Now listen. Infinitely more valuable than your reputation. Your vocation.

Your accomplishments in life. Infinitely more valuable than your family. Grandparents.

Parents. Wife. Husband. Children. I know this is hard. This is what Paul is saying.

Your salvation is not just icing on the cake of life. It is the cake. And everything else God graciously allows you to have is the icing.

But it is the cake. It is the cake. That we should value more than anything else. To salvation.

Knowing Jesus Christ savingly is infinitely more valuable than life itself. Do you remember what Paul said in Philippians 1.21? For me to live is Christ.

To live is Christ. And to die is gain. That's what Paul said. That's how Paul felt about it. Here's what Paul is saying.

You can take everything. And stack it up on the scale. Blessings. Possessions.

Accomplishments. Joy in life. Joys in life. Family. Friends. Everything. You can take it all and stack it in one huge pile. And it will never ever equal the surpassing excellence.

The supreme value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And so when you suffer the loss of something.

Or you suffer the loss of someone. As tragic as it is. Paul is not taking anything away from that by the way. These are real hard things.

But when we suffer these things. We can rejoice in the Lord. Because we can never lose Him. Never lose Him.

So then priority number one. What you should value more than anything else in this world. And it is your salvation in Christ.

That's it. Now this speaks to the believer of course. Paul is writing to believers. He says my brethren.

That includes the sisters too. This is speaking to believers. Here this morning. Because. Let's just admit it.

Born again Christians can. And often do. Lose sight of the infinite. Value. Of their salvation in Christ. Not that we lose our salvation.

But we just lose sight of. Its value. Above all things. We can lose sight of that. And when we do. We at the same time.

Lose our ability. To rejoice. Grace. Now this also speaks to the unbeliever. This morning. This is in that sense.

Very evangelistic. I think. It speaks to the unbeliever. Those who have never known Jesus.

In a saving way. The promise. That comes from the scripture. For those who know Jesus.

Savingly. Is. Used. I think. By the Holy Spirit. To make salvation. So. Attractive.

So alluring. I don't need to. Come up with words. To make it attractive. God makes it attractive.

The Holy Spirit. Uses that. To. Draw. The unbeliever. To the place of repentance. And faith. So this is. Then by. Implication.

Very evangelistic. And if you are here. This morning. And you're an unbeliever. You don't know. Jesus. Savingly. And then come. To him.

Trust him. Before the believer. We need. To have our. Joy. Restored. The joy. Of our salvation. And we need to pray. Like David prayed.

In Psalm 51. Verse 12. You remember how he prayed? Restore. To me. The joy. Of your salvation.

Only then. When we see our salvation. In all of its value.

Supreme value. Only then can we rejoice. No matter what. Thank you.