Our scripture lesson this morning comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians 7 and we'll be reading the second part of verse 13 through verse 16. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proven true. And his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have perfect confidence in you. Amen. Dear Saints, you may be seated. After a one-week hiatus because of the Presbytery meeting, we are back in the Great Series in 2 Corinthians. Before we go into it, as always, let's do the important work of prayer, shall we? Father, we thank you that you have given us everything we could possibly need or want in Jesus, and you have filled us with an inescapable irrepressible joy, the joy of the Lord. And we thank you that we have that. And we pray that you'll fill our hearts with Jesus Christ, edify us, build us up in our most holy faith. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. The joy of the Lord is our strength as our brother Nehemiah shared with us in Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 see and last week providentially we were in Nehemiah chapter 2 so he's been ministering to us quite a bit as the Old Covenant and New Covenant churches are joined together joy in the healthy reformed church is catchy and Those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells are totally infected with the sanctified disease. And there is no vaccination that can protect the regenerated Christian from it. So if we are the covenant community of Christ that understands the glories and privileges we have, then we have this contagious joy. Even the presence of goats, weeds, or wolves who may slither into the garden of God's delightful pasture of his church cannot contain the proliferation of this triumphant happiness that we have in Christ. And none of this has a whole lot to do with us. This isn't about us. It's not our returns to God, it's His promise in the covenant community, in the preaching, the sacraments, the means of grace. The confirmation of His grace to us gives us this soul-enhancing heartening in Jesus and His blood atonement and His glorious resurrection. It's all about God. He has done it for us. We're the blessed beneficiaries of all this. The true saints of the true church are happy because God is happy with us. And He has made us happy because He sees us perfectly situated in His Son, His natural Son, Jesus Christ, risen to the Father's right hand, who is in perfect glorious bliss. And so we are sharing in that joy, in that celebration. Because of all this, let's make it our goal this Resurrection Day to be what we are, the Contagiously Joyful Church, studying together 2 Corinthians 7, 13b-16, and if you're new here and you want to use the outline, we start here. The title is Contagious Joy. The doctrine, joy in the Christ-loving church spreads like a holy virus. Now we mentioned this in the introduction. This is one of the glories of the covenant and the kingdom of God, the church of God, the true church, is that it infects everything in a good way. It's like yeast. that affects the whole lump. Every part of the earth gets filled with the glory of God. It's so significant that though we mentioned it in the introduction, we'll say it again here. And this is great news for us because we get to be the carriers of this sacred virus to the human beings created in God's image who all want, crave, need, and long for the very life and joy and peace and grace and salvation and forgiveness and reason for living and dignity that you have by the grace of God. You're the carriers. You come to understand this better every Sunday, and you take it into your worlds every week. Let us now settle on the fact that joy in the Christ-loving Church spreads like a holy virus. Nothing can prevent this. Now, the Book of Acts is a particularly good resource for us here, and that's why I've listed a number of references for you there on your outline. You can check them out later. Even suffering, hardship, difficulties, persecutions, tribulations, distresses, heart-wrenching troubles, nightmarish situations, horrible circumstances, none of them can stance the oozing blood of unspeakable supernatural and heavenly joy all flowing from the wounds and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the repository or the catcher or the container into which all this joy comes? The faithful covenant community of the theologically and doctrinally pure, spirit-filled church on earth as well as in heaven. One would have more success at coiling the sun from rising and setting than he or she would have at suppressing the proliferation of the joy of the Lord. in the true church of real saints, who are still sinners. And all of this centers on Jesus Christ, our Lord, and His sacrifice, His atonement for us, and His resurrection. We are celebrating because Christ is King. He's been raised to the Father's right hand. Face it, dears, face it right now. Face a true fact of life. No one, yourselves included, can stop God from doing all that He pleases. And He is absolutely intent on making you, who are in Christ, who are regenerate, who are faithful in the covenant of the Church, as happy as you can possibly be, even in a fallen world, all in Christ. Joy in the Christ-loving church spreads like a holy virus. Nothing can prevent this. Not even Satan, sin, or hypocrites. Now, earlier we listed some other so-called challengers who would venture into the boxing ring, if you will, of the effort to frustrate God's determination to fill His church saints with joy. Remember those? Persecution, trials, tribulations? All of them failed. They're all beaten. So now the old devil may say, let me step into the ring. Let me send a bunch of demons into the ring. Let me send some of my human allies into the ring. The Pharisees, the hypocrites, the religious know-it-alls. The self-righteous law-mongers, the works-righteous gospel people, why don't we send them in? They could surely kill off the joy of the Lord in the Church of God. No, they also go home miserable failures as well. How about sin itself? That's a pretty foreboding one, isn't it? Is not sin a mighty force? Has not the fall cast all of us into rebellion and hatred for God and sin? Yes, it has, but compared to Jesus and His atonement for the saints, even sin has no power over us. This is a remarkable reason, dares to be so joyful. Maybe hypocrites. Know-it-alls. Pharisees. Maybe they can undo the joy of the Lord in the Church of Christ. Maybe they can bring their sullen, corrupted gospel upon us and seek to take away our liberty, our joy in Jesus. The freedoms of our consciences. Maybe they can do it with their laws and their works. No, indeed, they flop as well. Dears, what is said about God's love for his church may also be said about Christ's joy in his church. And I'm quoting Romans 8, 38 and 39. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Same thing with the joy we have in Jesus. Let's do the exegesis of verses 13b through 16 of 2nd Corinthians 7. and regale or celebrate the dimensions of the faithful church's contagious joy. Now, in Romans 8 we heard of the height and depth. Now let us revel in the expansive nature of the spreading holy plague of happiness coursing through, over, and in the covenant community of the humble, faithful, true. yet still sinful, totally redeemed, completely loved by God, church. The dimensions of the faithful church's contagious joy. First, heavenly renewal in Christ, verse 13b. And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. You can see that, again, Paul's the southerner, you all, but that's beside the point. Now you might recall if you were here two weeks ago and three weeks ago that the earlier verses were all about good grief or godly sorrow. Now here, the apostle is sharing how this heartfelt repentance among the Corinthians had so blessed this gentleman, Titus, this important Gentile minister of the gospel, a very close friend of Paul's, and an important ministerial, presbyterial companion in the ministry. When Titus had shown up in Corinth, he probably didn't really know what to expect. Would this be a really hard time, with the Corinthians still doing their foolish things? Or would this be a glorious time, they having received some good instruction from Paul? Well, to his very great delight, Titus discovers that things are good in Corinth, by the grace of God. Very good. And the reason for this was because good grief, hearty sorrow for sin, repentance, forgiveness, and renewal had come upon them. Now, when Titus left Corinth, he was a whole lot happier than he was when he came. He probably came with fear and trepidation. He leaves with joy and a glowing report of their faith and love. You dears, when you come to church, you come with a whole week's worth of baggage. You come with burdens, trials. You're trying to put them out of your mind. You're seeking to honor God, Christ, the Holy Spirit in the Lord's day. And yet you come to church with hardships, but When you leave, you are so much happier, filled with joy, contentment, edification, hope, encouragement, life, renewal, strength, things that only God can give, and he does give to his church. And why? Why? What can one hour, or a little more sometimes, or a little less sometimes, how can it have such a profound impact on your entire being, your entire life? How can it govern everything you'll ever do for the rest of your week, till the next Lord's Day? It's because you have heard the good news, the gospel of Jesus. you have ingested him by faith in the word and as per Lord willing next Sunday in the sacrament you have been with the saints You have communed with them, you have fellowshiped with them, you've enjoyed koinonia with them. The Holy Spirit has filled you, encouraged you, and moved you along a little further in your growth and grace and the knowledge of the Lord and your Christ-likeness and your sanctification. A little further. It's a good thing. The dimensions of the faithful church's contagious joy, heavenly renewal in Christ, and honest credibility in Christ. C-R-E-D-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y, which means truthfulness. And we'll read verse 14. For whatever boasts I made to him, that's Titus, about you, the Corinthians, I was not put to shame, but just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. There's truthfulness, honesty, honorableness in the church is so absolutely important. We must be with God and ourselves and each other completely transparent. We need to confess the truth about who God is. We did that in the Apostles Creed. We need to confess the truth about who we are, sinners. We need to confess our sins. We need to confess our joy. We need to tell the truth to God, to ourselves, to each other. And that's what Paul did here. Paul went to Corinth and told them nothing but the truth. and he hears good news about Titus imbibing true reports about the Corinthians. Honesty, truthfulness, it's the hallmark of the creed of real, forgiven by God in Christ, church saints. There's no need, no reason to pretend, to hide behind masks and masquerades religious phoniness and falsehood. We don't need any of that. We can be completely honest with God. And that's what we see here, real credibility. Now if you think about it, Paul had really put his personal and apostolic reputation on the line with Titus. Titus was a very good friend of Paul's. One of his presbyters. He was somebody that he cared for a lot. And Paul told Titus that the Corinthian churchmen were for real. And when Titus shows up in Corinth, he finds out that Paul's right. Paul is exonerated. Paul was truthful. His report was accurate. He was not exaggerating. No hyperbole here at all. The Corinthians were, by God's grace, what Paul said they would be. You Redeemerites are a lot like this with me. I also tell my ministerial colleagues of your love for God in Christ, your love for each other, your desire to be everything God would have you be as a church, your desire to go as low and humble as you possibly can, and yet to rise to the highest heights of who you can be in Christ Jesus, recreated in his image. I tell my friends about you, and when they come here, as they did a week ago yesterday, they see for themselves that this report is true. It's credible. This is a humbling thing for us. We need to constantly humble ourselves, be prayerful, on the offensive, attack the enemy, go after him, pick up the arms and attack. Always be moving ahead. Prayerful, watchful, never stopping, never going into idle, never resting on our laurels. Moving ahead. pushing the enemy, taking the offensive. But what is necessary for the spirit to be inculcated in a faithful church and for it to spill over from our hearts to each other and then because we're not big enough it goes over us into the world around us and the people we know. a vital living faith in Christ, a vital living faith in Christ, which manifests itself in love and ministerial service in the church and through her in the world around us. And where is this first formally introduced to us on a weekly basis? In Sunday church worship. And what is the fruit of all this in the Regenerate Saints? Joy, which spurs on even more tender love for God in Christ Jesus. The dimensions of the faithful church's contagious joy. Heavenly renewal in Christ, honest credibility in Christ, and finally, genuine love in Christ, verses 15 and 16. And his affection, that's Titus' affection for you, is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you. Now, there are a number of very sweet God-given attributes in these two verses, and I'm going to break them down for you here. First of all, in the first part of verse 15, we behold growing affection. Titus had become very fond of this Corinthian church, and you can bet that he understood that things weren't always hunky-dory there in the past. Next, we read of obedience in the middle part of verse 15. True love always leads to happy and willing compliance to the God we cherish in Christ. So if we really love God, we're going to happily obey Him as a Father we love and cherish. Next in line is a living and holy godly fear. As Paul says, Titus was received by the Corinthians with, quote, fear and trembling. Now, this is good news because it indicates that the Corinthians really were deeply affected by the situation that they'd gone through with Paul, the offender, the repentance, and the restoration, and all the good work that had occurred in that church. And this demonstrated that the Corinthians were serious about their repentance. They weren't playing games. And this could be referenced in the earlier part of this very chapter 7. And finally, in verse 16, it relates to us Paul's own joyful confidence in the God who could perform such wonders in his still sinful church saints. Because as we all know, if it's up to us, we're complete miserable failures. I mean, if we don't look to Christ, we can't do anything. For apart from me, you can do nothing. And every time we take our eyes off Him, we fail and sin. And yet, look what God can do. If we will simply be faithful, faith-filled, believing Christian churchmen, Remember, there's the goal of your faith is love for God in and through Jesus Christ, which then manifests itself in your worship of God as his church on the Lord's Day, so that you can have a reason for being functional throughout the week, and actually have the power and the ability to do anything worthwhile. And this love, because it's so joyful, cascades through you to each other, and then, as I mentioned, it spills out from you into the world around you. You bubble with this cascading, contagious joy. As always here at Redeemer, let's do a little more personal application and covenantal application, in this case, of the sermon and the contents of the text to our own hearts. We've done some, but let's do more. Let's get all we can and consider together why contagious joy is inevitable in the true church. Now this is an interesting biblical doctrine to me because in the true church, the faithful church, we're not talking about false churches, synagogues of Satan, all that. It's the true church, yet imperfect. Catchy joy is not an auxiliary part of the body. It's not something we can choose to do or not do. That's not an option. It's not a choice we make at all. God made the choice. We are simply the recipients of all this covenantal joy and blessing as the covenant community, signed and sealed in the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's Supper, confirmed Lord's Day to Lord's Day in the preaching of the gospel from the text of the Holy Scripture. The choice has been made for us by God, and He has determined that His children will be happy. You don't really have the option to not be. There is no place in the true church for morose, sullen, grousing Christians, because those Christians are not regenerate Christians. This isn't to deny, obviously, that we sorrow and have problems and get sad and cry and grieve. But those who have a sullen spirit a self-righteous spirit, a determined stubbornness to resist God in Christ Jesus. They're not regenerate Christians. They may know the Bible, they may have their convictions, they may be as stern and strict as you can imagine, but they're not in Christ. And therefore, let us now consider why contagious joy is inevitable in the true church. First, because where Christ's kingdom is established, celebrations are held weekly. We understand kingdoms are all about celebrations, right? And these gala events, as I mentioned earlier, have a whole lot less to do with us than they do with God, the King, Christ Jesus, the crowned King of Heaven, the Triune God. who has made us his covenant of grace and we are so happily finding ourselves in it, in Christ alone. So what we are saying in this point is this, God's kingdom, which you're in right now, if you're in Christ and his church, celebrates the Son of God in a formal way every Sunday, Therefore, every week, of every single year, of every single decade, of every single century, while the created realm exists in its present form. Those who are called to the celebration are baptized Christians who have been, by God's grace alone, able to remain faithful in their baptism, by faith, loving, serving, wanting to please God their Father in Jesus Christ. They are clothed in the wedding garments of the Son of God, Matthew 22, 11-14. Those who aren't clothed, who aren't baptized, Jesus would come to them and say, why are you here? Who invited you? Out, out the door. You can read about it there in Matthew 22, it's pretty serious. But those who are baptized in Christ and are faithful are garbed in Christ himself, as per Romans 13, 14. Now the Lord's Supper, which Lord willing we hope to celebrate next Sunday, that's the special covenantal banqueting meal of the covenant church community, our celebration. That is where God confirms his love to us from heaven. His promises, his covenant promises on those who are signed and sealed in the covenant by grace. There is a great covering of blessing that comes over us. It is a covering of love that protects the covenant community, the true church of Christ. The faithful church is the only place on earth where this covenantal blessing is known. All other forms of religion, be they of a Christian stripe or of any other kind, do not enjoy these gospel benefits. Only those in the covenant do. That's why what you're doing here is celebrating kingdom life right now, and the king's with you. What's the result of all this? Well, in the redeemed of the Lord, it's joy in Christ alone. Why contagious joy is inevitable in the true church? Because where Christ's kingdom is established, celebrations are held weekly. Every Sunday is a feast day. Why is it that we never fast on Sunday? You know, I'm not a big faster anyway, so have fun convincing me to fast, but I'm just saying. Why would no intelligent, well-informed Christian ever fast on Sunday. Because that's the feast day. That's the day of celebration. That's the day we eat a lot. We eat the sermon. We eat Jesus in the sermon. We eat his flesh, drink his blood at the table. Today we get a love feast downstairs just as an icing on the cake. The Lord's Day is not like every other day. It's not a day for ordinary things. It's not a day for work. It's not even a day really to be thinking about our work. Years ago, it dawned on me, I was always making a mistake with some guys. Come up, how's business going on Sunday? All of a sudden, it dawned on me, that's dumb as a rock. And I finally quit doing that. I don't want them thinking about that stuff. They've got six days to do that. Sunday is the feast day. Joyful day, the day of celebration. What makes it a feast day? Well, the bread of life, Jesus Christ, the manner of God, the wine of life, the Holy Spirit, and if you will, the Father of life, the one who calls his children back to himself in a special way every Sabbath day, which now in the New Covenant is Sunday. in the new heavens, the new earth, the new creation. The kingdom of God, which is the church, is the dominion of joy. But even here, dears, let's face it, this gladness sometimes only comes to us after godly sorrow or good grief. After all, what preceded this in 2 Corinthians 7? Godly sorrow, good grief. But even when that is the case, even then, there's a great verse for you. Right, it's referenced Hebrews 12.22. Even then, We always have Sunday, the Lord's Day, to re-ascend Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, as per Hebrews 12.22. That's what you're doing. And when you get to the top, as the church on the Lord's Day in the worship service, who do you find there? You find the King of glory, who sits with you. who condescends to you, who invites you right into his heart, who brings you with him into the heart of God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, who embraces you in tender love. This fills you with the joy of the Lord. The King and Head of the Church, the Blessed Lord Jesus, the sovereign of all. He is the one who shed his blood for us. He's the one who rose from the dead for the justification of the church. He's the one that provides us the reason for this celebration, this joy. As God's celebratory covenant community, his people of his church, bought with the blood of the lamb, Put all your trust always in Him. Love Him with all your heart. Celebrate Him with everything you have. Live for Him in every possible function of your being. Beloved, contagious joy is just that. It's catchy. It can't be contained. It's a beautiful and wonderful thing. In the Church of Christ, we always are. those who are filled with, by God's grace, contagious joy. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this fact. We are so thankful that we can't help but be happy in Christ. We hate our sins, we grieve our struggles, but we don't despair. We're not even discouraged. Sin, Satan, the world, the flesh, wicked people, demons, troubles, sicknesses, trials, hardships, nothing can contain and stop this joy of the Lord. And it's not because of us, Lord, it's because of you. We thank you that you've commanded us to be joyful. It's not our option, but you've made us joyful in Christ and we thank you for it in his name. Amen.