Thank you for that message and song. Take your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter five this morning. Galatians chapter five as we continue on. Now, you look at the title of my message and you say that is a different topic. Thou shalt pull a long face on Sunday. We're talking about joy and peace today. I read something that Charles Spurgeon said. He said, it is a sort of a tradition of the fathers that it is wrong to laugh on Sundays. The 11th commandment is we are to love one another, and then, according to some, the 12th is thou shalt pull a long face on Sunday. I must confess that I would rather hear people laugh than I would see them asleep in the house of God. That was Spurgeon. I thought of that because Monty sent me an email. You know, Monty is the king of poems around here. He sent me an email about you might be a redneck if, and that reminded me of another redneck one I had seen. You might belong to a redneck church if. You might belong to a redneck church if the finance committee refuses to provide funds for the purchase of a chandelier. Because none of the members know how to play it. You know your church's redneck if the opening day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday. We would have to put elk there, wouldn't we? There's a bunch of these. I'm trying to decide which to read. You know your church's redneck if baptism is referred to as branding. You know your church's redneck if the high notes of the organ set the dogs in the pickups to howling. And you know, and this one actually hurt. You know your church's redneck if the baptismal is a number two galvanized tub. That one hurt. Actually, these were Monte's and they were more serious. You might be a redneck if it never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase one nation under God. You might be a redneck if you've never protested about seeing the Ten Commandments posted in a public building. You might be a redneck if you still say Christmas instead of Winter Festival. You might be a redneck if you still bow your head when someone prays. You might be a redneck if you give your last dollar to a friend, and you might be a redneck if you believe in Christ and you know why He came. That's what Christmas is all about, isn't it? Christ and Christ, why He came. As we sang this morning, you probably noticed in the hymns the reoccurring message, joy, peace. Fruit of the Spirit, in Galatians chapter 5, is love and it is joy and it is peace. Would you join me in a word of prayer? Father, may it never be said of us that we pull a long face on Sunday. May we with the psalmist say, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Father, may we rejoice in Thy presence, not because of anything in us, but because of Thy Savior and the completed work that He came to do. For He did not stay as a babe in a manger, Father. He walked this earth and never sinned. He walked a lonely road with jeering crowds, and He hung upon a tree. to pay for my sin, the sin of everyone in this room, no matter how black it might be to them individually, You paid for that sin. For the sin of the whole world. O Lord, may we rejoice in that today, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. Perhaps of all men, they had the least to be joyful for. It was a harsh life, eking out a living in those Judean hills. Faces weather-checked by the elements, leathery hands, thorn-torn, dusty feet. You know, sometimes you think that these Wyoming ranges are hard to deal with when it comes to carrying capacity. Years of grazing had played a toll on those Judean hills. Incessant droughts, blistering summer winds, all combined to make shepherding a shaky proposition at best. But these were the hills where David roamed. At least there was consolation in that. Not much grass, but what was there sure put fat on their backs. Craggy hills with weather-beaten scrub and solitary springs with cool water. One thing that remained constant through all the years was the bedding grounds. Rock enclosures, rocks stacked high over the millennia. It sure helped to keep the predators out. Fire rings in the center, good places to spread one's blanket. Like singing cowboys of the American West, settling their herds with a night song. Perhaps they sung the songs of David to settle in the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." When suddenly the night sprang into light, for behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said unto them, stop being afraid. Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which are meant for all people. For behold, there is born on your behalf in the city of David A Savior. He is the Messiah. Adonai. And this is a sign for you of who it is. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, sleeping in a manger, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of all the heavenly armies praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. Goodwill toward man. What a night it must have been. A hurried trip to the stable in Bethlehem. A sleeping baby just as the angels said. Rushing back through the streets. Telling everyone, anyone who would listen. A night to remember. A message of great joy. A song of great peace. But then, Those Roman soldiers still remained. Those sheep were still stinky. Taxes had to be paid and money lenders and predators had to be dealt with. Drought and the like. I guess it probably didn't seem like much had changed. Or had it? Perhaps everything. Without a doubt, the commodities that are most sought after and yet least found on this old sin-cursed sod are the commodities of love, joy, and peace. Many people lie to themselves, especially at Christmas, in the mirth of all their festivities, while they're hiding the barrenness of their own soul. My friend, if we truly have these, Love, joy and peace. Though the bank account may be empty and though the pantry may be bare, yet of all men we are most blessed. Last week we thought about love. We struggled to peer beyond the page and we sought that the Spirit might truly write upon our hearts the height, the depth, the width, A true knowledge of the love of Christ, this week before us, lies the result of that love. The offspring, the by-product. When the love of God is shed abroad in the heart of a man, it will always... Let me say it again. When the love of God is shed abroad in the human heart, it will always produce joy and peace. This is what the scripture is alluding to in Romans chapter 14 when Paul is writing there and he says, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it is righteousness. It is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit for he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and is approved by men. Now, this joy, this peace that we speak about, this is not a hyped up emotionalism. but rather it is the by-product of a gospel-saturated soul. When we talk about these fruits of the Spirit, we're talking about love, we talked about agape, we're talking about joy, which is a Greek word kara, we're talking about peace, which is a Greek word arene. When we think of these thoughts, we are talking about kara is joy. I want you to notice in the original language, the Greek language, the word kara, joy, has a close twin sister. It is the word karis, which is the word we know as grace. And there is a link in all of our lives between grace and joy. When we think of peace, when we think of the concepts of peace, we are thinking of well-being. We are thinking of that tranquility of the soul. We are thinking of that Hebrew word which probably summarizes it well when the Hebrews would greet one another and they would say to one another, Shalom. Peace. It's probably summed up well in David's exclamatory exultation in the 25th Psalm when he says, who is the man who fears the Lord? His soul shall dwell at ease. Is your soul at ease? How is it with your soul? His soul shall dwell at ease. I love the praise of David when he stretches out his soul in a messianic psalm in the 16th. And he says, the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. He says, I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh, and this is a prophetic message of the Messiah. Peter quotes it in the sermon in Acts 2. My flesh will rest in hope for you will not leave my soul in the grave, nor will you allow your Holy One to see decay. And then he says this. You will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand. or eternal pleasures. Have you ever been nervous about going somewhere where you've never been? I think sometimes as Christians, that's why we get a little bit nervous when we think about going to heaven. We've never been there. But the scripture tells us this. Heaven is a place of fullness of joy and eternal peace. In fact, when the faithful steward stands before his Lord and his Lord says to him, enter in, to the joy of your Lord. Enter in to the joy of your Lord. Heaven is a place of eternal pleasure and fullness of joy. And we get a little foretaste of that now in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who bears forth fruit in our life. Where are you searching for peace? Where are you searching for joy? The great early church father, St. Augustine, said these searching words to us. He said, Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee. Our heart is restless until it is at rest in Thee. Jesus Christ is the wellspring of joy and peace. These three words, love, joy and peace, put the discussion concerning the reality of our faith. And I want us to think about this morning. When you think of the reality of your faith, how do you know the reality of your faith? These three words and the fruit of the Spirit put that discussion. Purely in experiential terms, He points at the state of our soul. Is there love? Is there joy and is there peace? It is important we understand, my friend, our faith does not derive from our experience. But it derives from the truth. The truth of the Gospel. Christ came. Christ lived. Christ died. Christ was buried and Christ arose. And it is on the bedrock of that Gospel, that truth, that all of our faith derives. But let us realize something. Our faith has short-circuited if it does not affect what our Puritan friends called the vital emotions. Joy and peace. Jonathan Edwards, who was a great preacher that God used mightily in sending great awakening to the colonial American colonies, said this, true religion, in great part, consists in the affections. Think of that. True religion, in a great measure, consists in the affections of the heart. He pointed to this in 1 Peter 1, verse 8, when he quoted this verse, whom having not seen, you love, in whom though now you do not see him, Yet, believing in Him, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Do you remember when Thomas meets the Lord? And Thomas had said, unless I can thrust my hand into your side and I can put my fingers in the nail prints, I will not believe. And Jesus comes into the room a week after the resurrection and He catches Thomas and He says, come, thrust your hand into my side. Do not be faithless, but be believing. And He falls on His face and He says, my Lord and my God, And the Lord says to Thomas, because you have seen me, you believe. Blessed are those who do not see. And yet will believe. Whom having not seen, you love. According to John Piper here, Edwards points out that true religion has two kinds of operation in the soul. It produces a love to Christ, whom having not seen, you love. Where is your love this morning? In things of the earth? Whom having not seen you love, and then also in joy in Christ. And then John Piper tells us both of these operations in the soul are affections, not merely decisions. They are affections. And so Jonathan Edwards goes on, he says this, I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth. And so he says, I would erase and arise your affections and your emotions to cry out unto God. And so this morning, let us seek to raise our hearts in a crescendo of praise, overflowing with the joy of the Holy Spirit, cognizant of His presence amongst us. Let us revel in His joy. For as Nehemiah said, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Let us as believers never be accused by the world of that sourness of soul that poisons the heart with drudgery. One of God's great indictments against Israel was when He said unto them in Deuteronomy 28, because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, therefore you shall serve your enemies. What an indictment is that? Before we talk any further about true peace and joy, let's turn for a minute and try to smash some sacred cows of our culture when it comes to joy and peace. The first cow I'd like to kill. Joy and peace are not found in the multitude of your possessions. Right? Remember when you're a child and some of you children are right there? We used to look at the Sears Christmas catalog. Now they go online. And you just knew if you could get that thing, that Tyco car track or whatever it was, you'd be happy forever. And it broke one day after Christmas and ended up in the burn barrel. Increasing our carbon footprint. We must gladly thank God for every good gift that He bestows on us. Amen. We must receive things from God as a gift from Him, because like the psalmist cried out, if goods increase, we should thank Him. But we should never set our hearts upon that. Job says the Lord gives and he is an abundant giver. But the Lord may also take away. And the name of the Lord is still blessed. Materialism and consumerism are the blight of our culture. I mean, when the mall has a greater drawing card at Christmas than the church, something is askew. when economic expansion is mainly gauged by consumer spending. Priorities have become wrong and as we know, he who dies with the most toys still dies. Are you anxious? Are you troubled over your possessions or your lack thereof? I adjure thee by God's great name. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Don't let the world's priorities set your agenda for Christmas. Steve mentioned this. Gifts are wonderful expressions of our love for one another, aren't they? They are wonderful expressions of our love for one another. And I don't want to be robbed of that joy by a world which worships things. I want to give gifts. Because I love people. I love my family. I love others. Gifts are a wonderful expression of that love. But we should never let our drive to purchase the latest gadget squash in our heart the true meaning of the season. And we should never let a covetous heart cause us to burst our budget on absurdities. Secondly, this is the next cow in the herd. Peace and joy are not only not found in possessions. Peace and joy are not found in the professions. And I want to explain this one carefully. I am very thankful to God for people in this community and around our country. People in this building who have devoted their life, their careers and their callings to the medical field. And they seek to allay our suffering, and they treat our ailments, and they, in many ways, deny themselves because of emergency calls and other things, and their life revolves around the care, physically, of patients. And as patients, we go to them when we are ill, and they seek to put us on a path to the restoration of health. And I think often we do not pause enough to thank them for their labors, the surgeons, the nurses, the technicians that work the x-ray machines and others that work in these healthcare professions. But as an extension of that, let us never buy the lie that you can find the bottle of youth in a bottle. There's no vitamin out there that'll do it. And vitamins are great. Let us never buy the lie that the ultimate solution to our soul's deepest longings can somehow come from a pill. You know, things like serotonin and dopamine were created by God and they function in our brains as a part of our holistic systems. But just merely tampering with hormones and acids will never solve your soul's deepest needs, my friend. We are more than strings of amino acids and hormones, chemicals bonded together. When God formed man, He breathed into him a living soul. And sin-sick souls can only find healing at the Great Physician. And lastly, I would say to us, true peace, and this isn't last in the sermon, sorry, on the cows. True peace and joy are not found in the party. That alliterated well. We sometimes think so. Proverbs chapter 23 says this, who has woe, who has sorrow, who has contentions, maybe on Christmas Eve, fights in the house, who has complaints. Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine. Those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swivels around smoothly. At the last, it bites like a serpent and it stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things. And from your heart, you will utter perversity. Yes, you will be like the one who lies down in the midst of the sea. Or like one who lies at the top of the mast saying, they have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I didn't even feel it. When can I awake so I can get another drink? There is no peace nor joy in those things. I got a call last night from a young woman And she was crying. I'd never met her. And she said, Pastor Tim, can you help me? I need the Lord. Why was she crying that way? Addictions. These very things. To be sure, there is no virtue in sourness. We've already killed that cow. Let's not pull a long face. And God's saints should be supremely happy and fun to be with. I think laughter should roll easily from our bosoms and we should enjoy a good, clean joke with the best of them. And we should be known as merry men. Remember the transformation of Scrooge. But fools make a mock of sin. And the carnage from the prodigal's profligacy haunts into the night, and there is no rest, the Scripture says, for the wicked. Isaiah says, I create the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far off, to him who is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him. But the wicked are like a troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace. says my God, for the wicked. So God would have us to stand in the way of righteousness, but He would have us stand there with a joyful heart and with a glad countenance. In his book, Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon had this advice. He said it is a very vulgar error to suppose that a melancholy countenance is the index of a gracious heart. He says, I commend cheerfulness to all who would win souls, not levity or frothiness, but a genial happy spirit. There are more flies caught with honey than with vinegar. There will be more souls led to heaven by a man who wears heaven in his face than by one who bears hell in his looks. Have you ever noticed how many of our Christmas songs do speak about joy and peace? Joy to the world, the Lord has come! It came upon a midnight clear, the glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold. Peace on earth, goodwill to men, from heaven's all-gracious King. I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat, of peace on earth, good will to men. You know, I think when people think about peace, when people think about joy, they may envision many different things. I think there are different types of peace that people talk about. Perhaps, first of all, in our world today, people speak of international peace, don't they? Peace amongst the nations. Much could be said here, but it is important we understand that Jesus' primary purpose in this stage of redemptive history has nothing to do with international peace. To be sure, when nations are at peace, People can prosper, but no united nations will ever usher in the kingdom and cause men to beat their swords into plowshares. That will be the final result of when the Prince of Peace rolls back the curse like an old tattered garment and this earth enjoys a millennium of peace. Some people think of circumstantial peace, don't they? Circumstantial peace and joy. We had a doozy of a day yesterday. One of those days I had to go to the dump for a whole different story. Go into the dump, go down into the pit, and with my new tires, drove over a horrible steel hunk. So, I didn't know that. Come out of the dump and we're on our way to town and all of a sudden I'm like, Ty, what is that sound? It was the sound of rushing air. So, we make it into town, limp it into town, get to true value, get out, surely we can just change a tire, big deal. Well, my Dodge truck, I don't know about all your people's trucks, but has the spare tire up underneath the bed, tightly wound to the bed. What tool don't I have? The one to let down the spare. What one can you not find in true value, Larry? We'd only made it to Napa. So we, Brad's our savior. Brad and Elizabeth are there and then Dustin and then another friend that works up at the mine and people are gathered around. Finally, we get the tire down with the pipe wrench and then the jack. And since the tire is so flat, the jack won't go underneath the axle. One thing after another. My friend, if your peace and joy is completely related to circumstances, then you will probably be miserable many times. Perhaps people think only in terms of relative safety. Things like the absence of fear. Maybe a good neighborhood watch program. Maybe even an armed police officer in every school. That'll give me peace. But we as Christians think deeper. When we think of peace, we see something different. These things derive from a different peace. And that peace is the peace of a conscience that is at rest in God. When we think of the conscience, we are thinking of that faculty of self-knowledge. I am reminded of the words of the Spirit in Hebrews chapter 9, when He says to us, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living and the true God? When we think of peace, we are thinking of a conscience without spot that is clear, that is clean. It is at peace and it has joy. The Puritans taught us that a good conscience is a jewel beyond price. It is a treasure rare. And the question comes to us, well, how can I have one? A man named William Perkins was a Puritan pastor. He preached from St. Andrew's Church in Cambridge during the 1600s. He was known as a great physician of soul care, helping to diagnose and heal by grace many who were troubled in sin. The story is related, is written down for us. That once in the city, a man was condemned to die. Perkins, in great pastoral love, went to the execution. As the man was climbing the gallows in great trepidation and dread, Perkins cried out to him, what man? What is the matter with thee? Are thou afraid of death? To which the man replied, it's not that I'm so much afraid of dying, it's that I'm afraid of what is to follow. Sayest thou so? Come down again, man, and thou shalt see what God's grace will do to strengthen thee." And so the executioner brings the man down. Perkins begins to pray for the man. The biography of Perkins' life says he offered such an effectual prayer in confession of sin that the poor prisoner burst out in the abundance of tears. Finally, Perkins was convinced that the prisoner was brought low enough, even to the gates of hell. And Perkins began to pray the gospel. And suddenly, the man's eyes were opened. And he began to see that all of the black lines of his sins were cancelled by the red lines of the crucified Savior's blood. And the man breaks out in a shower of tears of joy. The biography says the prisoner rose from his knees. He went cheerfully to the ladder. He ascended the scaffold and he publicly testified to the gathered crowd the merits of Christ's cross. And it is written that the crowd, in great rejoicing, testified that it was as if the heavens were opened to receive his soul to God. That, my friend, is a joy and a peace the world cannot understand. In Romans chapter 5, I would have you turn there briefly this morning as we come to a close. In Romans chapter 5, we see some verses, some teaching concerning peace, concerning joy, concerning love. Because if I know anything is true, I know that there are people here today who do not have what I speak of. And in Romans chapter five, the Apostle Paul says to us, therefore, having been justified by faith, exactly what this prisoner comes to terms with. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have received access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, we even glory when we get a flat. Knowing that testing produces perseverance and perseverance character and character brings hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Notice peace in verse 1. Notice joy in verse 2. Notice love in verse 5. We see in this teaching that justification by grace through faith precedes peace and joy. The world is looking for peace and joy, but it must come through the gateway of justification, of sin being forgiven and a right relationship with God. And then we also see in the last verse that love precedes it all. And it is shed abroad in our heart at the moment of our justification. Which brings us full circle to where we were last week. In 1 John 4, verse 19, when the Scripture says, we love Him because He first loved us. We love Him because He first loved us. Our love to Him is a responsive love and He sheds abroad in our heart the joy and the peace. You know, if you find out what you rejoice in, you will know what you love. Because our loves dictate our joys. What do you rejoice in this morning? In sin forgiven? A home in heaven? A Spirit's presence in your bosom? In John Wesley's journal, he recorded on the 1st of January, 1739, he made this entry. He said, Mr. Hall, Hinching, Ingham, George Whitfield, Hutching, and my brother Charles were all present at our love feast in Fetter Lane with 60 brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God fell upon us mightily, insomuch that many of us cried out with exulting joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we had recovered a little from the awe and the majesty of His presence, we broke out with one voice. We praise Thee, O God. We acknowledge Thee as Lord. Perhaps there has never been a more brilliant philosopher and thinker than the math magician, the Frenchman Blaise Pascal. He was the lion of scientific circles in the 1600s. After his death, They found stitched inside his shirts, over his heart, a poem that he had written. It goes like this. This day of grace, 1654, from half past ten at night to about half after midnight, fire. Fire. God of Abraham. God of Isaac. God of Jacob. Not of the philosophers and the wise. Security. Security. Feeling. Joy. Peace. God of Jesus Christ. Thy God shall be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and all save God. He can be found only in the ways taught in the Gospel. Greatness of the human soul. Greatness of the human soul, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have. Joy. Joy. Tears of joy. Whom having not seen, You love. Whom though now You see Him not, yet rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of Your faith, the salvation of your souls. Let us pray. Father, we thank You for the work of the Holy Spirit in our life that He not only produces in us a contrition and a conviction of sin, but He points us to the sufficiency of the work that Christ did on the cross. As that man who ascended the gallows and his soul was received gloriously into heaven, May we come to terms with the reality that the black lines of all of our sins have been cancelled by the red lines of Your grace. Father, I pray that if someone here today has never acknowledged You as Lord, that Father, even as we sing this morning and we break forth into songs of praise, may that heart break forth for the first time knowing and realizing that there is forgiveness of sin in Christ. Father, show them that joy. Awaken our hearts, we pray. Let us stand and we'll sing together as we close.