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Religion Forum Index » Christian Methodist Forum » How To Be Inexpressibly Happy...
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| Carl... |
 Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:53 pm |
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The following sermon from Reuben Torrey is on the topic of joy for the
Christian and what the Bible says about it. It is an encouraging and
uplifting sermon.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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How To Be Inexpressibly Happy
by R.A. Torrey
I have here a beautiful text, a text that you all know, but I wonder how
many of you have ever pondered it enough to take in all its wonderful wealth
of meaning.
A young woman in England many years ago always wore a golden locket that she
would not allow anyone to open or look into, and everyone thought there must
be some romance connected with that locket and that in that locket must be
the picture of the one she loved. The young woman died at an early age, and
after her death the locket was opened, everyone wondering whose face he
would find within. And in the locket was found simply a little slip of paper
with these words written upon it, "Though I have not seen Him, I love." Her
Lord Jesus was the only lover she knew and the only lover she longed for,
and she had gone to be with Him, the one object of her whole heart's
devotion, the unseen but beloved Savior.
But it is to the last part of the verse that I wish to call your particular
attention tonight, "Even though you do not see him now, you believe in him
and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
This text informs us (and many of us do not need to be informed of it, for
we know it by blessed experience) that one who really believes on Jesus
Christ, our unseen, but ever living Lord and Savior, rejoices with
"inexpressible and glorious joy." The Greek word translated "joy" is a very
strong word, describing extreme joy or jubilant joy. The word
"inexpressible" declares that this jubilant joy is of such a character that
we cannot, by any possibility, explain it adequately to others. Everyone who
really believes on the Lord Jesus does rejoice with an jubilant joy that is
beyond all description. And those who do truly believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ are the only ones who rejoice this way. Others may have a certain
amount of joy, a certain measure of gladness, but the only people who really
know "inexpressible and glorious joy" are those who really believe on Jesus
Christ.
Who is there among us who does not wish to be happy? Happiness is the one
thing all men are seeking. One man seeks it in one way, and another man
seeks it in another way, but all men are in pursuit of it. Even the man who
is "happy only when he is miserable" is seeking happiness in this strange
way of cultivating a delightful melancholy by always looking on the dark
side of things. One man seeks money because he thinks that money will make a
man happy. Another man seeks worldly pleasure because he thinks that worldly
pleasure will make a man happy. Still another seeks learning, the knowledge
of science, or philosophy, or history, or literature, because he thinks that
learning brings the true joy; but they are all in pursuit of the one thing,
happiness.
The vast majority of men who seek happiness do not find it. You may say what
you please, but for the majority of men this is an unhappy world. I go down
into the houses of the poor, I do not find many happy people there. I go
into the homes of the rich, I do not find many happy people even there.
Study the faces of the people you meet on the street, at places of
entertainment, or anywhere else, how many really radiant faces do you see?
When you do see one it is so exceptional that you note it at once. But there
is a way, and a very simple way, a very sure way, and a way that is open to
all, not only to find happiness, but to be unspeakably happy. Our text tells
us what that way is. Listen, "Even though you do not see him now, you
believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
This statement of Peter's is true. How do I know it is true? In the first
place, I know it is true because the Word of God says so. Whatever this book
says is true. In the second place, I know it is true because I have put the
matter to the test of personal experience, and found it true. A good many
people say, "I do not believe the Bible." Well, I do. I believe the Bible
for a good many sufficient reasons; but there is this one reason why I
believe the Bible that I wish to mention tonight: I believe the Bible
because I have personally tested scores and scores of its most astonishing
and apparently most incredible statements and found every one of them true
in my own experience. Don't you think that if I knew a man who made very
many statements that I could test for myself, some of them apparently
incredible, and I tested these statements one after another through a long
period of years, and found every one of them true, and never one single
statement failed, don't you think that I would believe that man after a
while? Well, that is just my experience with the Bible, and I believe it. I
would be a fool if I did not. The statement of the text is one of those that
I have tested, and I have found it true.
I was not always happy. Indeed, I was once unspeakably miserable. I had
sought happiness very earnestly. I had sought happiness in amusement and
sin, and found, not joy, but wretchedness. In my pursuit of happiness I had
tried study, the study of languages, science, philosophy and literature, but
I did not find happiness in these things. At last I turned to Jesus Christ
and believed on Him, and I found not merely happiness, but something better,
joy, "inexpressible and glorious joy." Whatever heaven may be or may not be,
I know that on this earth he who really believes on Jesus Christ, who puts
himself in Christ's hands, to be led, and taught, and guided, and
strengthened, puts himself in the hands of Jesus Christ for Jesus Christ to
do all He will with him, I know that such a person finds "inexpressible and
glorious joy."
Why Those Who Believe in Jesus Christ Have Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
First of all, those who believe on Jesus Christ have "inexpressible and
glorious joy" because they know that their sins are all forgiven. It is a
wonderful thing to know that your sins are all forgiven, to know that there
is not one single, slightest cloud between you and God, to know that no
matter how many, or how great your sins may have been, that they are all
blotted out; to know that God has put them all behind His back, where no one
can ever get at them; to know that God has sunk all your sins in the depths
of the sea, from which they can never be raised; that they are all gone. A
little boy once asked his mother, "Mother, where are our sins after they are
blotted out?" His mother replied, "My boy, where are those figures that you
erased from your paper yesterday?" He answered, "I rubbed them out." Then
she asked, "Where are they now?" he replied, "They are nowhere." "Well," she
said, "that is just the same with your sins when God has blotted them out.
They are nowhere. They have ceased to be."
Oh, friends, what a joy it is to know that there is not one single tiny
cloud between you and the Holy God whom we call Father and who rules this
universe. Suppose that you had offended the laws of the nation and had been
sent to prison on a life sentence, and a pardon were brought to you, do you
not think you would be happy? But that is nothing compared with the joy of
knowing that your every sin is blotted out. Some years ago Governor Stuart
of Pennsylvania determined to pardon one of the prisoners in the
Pennsylvania State prison, so he sent for Mr. Moody and said to him, "I have
determined to pardon one of the prisoners in our state's prison, and I want
you to go and take the pardon to him. You can preach to the prisoners if you
want to while you are doing it." So Mr. Moody went, carrying the pardon with
him, and before he began to preach he said, "I have a pardon for one of you
men that the Governor has sent by me." He did not intend to tell who it was
who was pardoned until the sermon was over, but as he looked around on his
audience and saw how anxious they all were, how eager they were, how a very
agony of suspense was in their faces, Mr. Moody thought, "This will never
do, I can't keep these men in this suspense," so he said, "I will tell you
now who the man is," and he read his name from the pardon. Do you not think
that, that was a glad moment for that one man out of those hundreds of
prisoners, a glad moment for the one man who had the Governor's pardon, and
who could walk out of prison a free man? Yes, but that is nothing to knowing
that the eternal God has eternally pardoned your sins. Every true Christian
knows that, he knows that every one of0 his sins is forgiven. How does he
know it? Because the Bible says so in many places.
For example, it says in Acts 13:39, "And by him all that believe are
justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law
of Moses."so we know it because God says so. But no one but the believer in
Jesus Christ knows that his sins are all forgiven. If anyone who is not a
believer in Jesus Christ says, "I know my sins are all forgiven," he says
what is not true; for he does not know it, and cannot know it, for it is not
a fact; but a Christian knows it because the Word of God says so.
The Christian knows his sins are all forgiven for another reason, that is,
because the Holy Spirit bears witness in his own heart to the fact. One day,
when the Apostle Peter was preaching to Cornelius, the Roman officer, and to
his household, he said, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through
his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."(Acts
10:43), and everyone in his audience believed it. The Spirit of God
descended right then and there and filled their hearts with the knowledge of
sins forgiven, and they "began to magnify God" with jubilant hearts and
jubilant voices. I tell you that was a joyful meeting.
A king, a great king, once wrote one of the greatest songs that ever was
written. That song has lasted through the ages. It has been sung and is
still being sung by thousands. It has been sung by millions, and though it
was written many centuries ago, it is just as sweet today as the day the
king wrote it. The man who wrote this song was a great king, the greatest
king of his day, he was also one of the greatest generals of his day, one of
the greatest generals of any day. He had great armies, the all-conquering
armies of the day. He had a magnificent palace. I do not suppose that any
other earthly king was ever so beloved as he was. His song was about joy and
about happiness. He does not say in that song, "How happy is the man who is
a great king," or, "How happy is the man who is a great general." What does
he say? "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are
covered" (Psalm 32:1, translated literally from the Hebrew): "There is no
happiness like the joy of knowing your sins are all forgiven." Oh, what a
joy thrills the heart when a man knows that his sins are fully, freely, and
forever forgiven. That is one reason why he who believes on Jesus Christ is
inexpressibly happy, and you can have that inexpressible happiness today. I
do not care how black your life may have been in the past; I do not care how
far you may have wandered from God; I do not care how old you may have grown
in sin; if you take Jesus Christ today for your Savior and your Lord, and
believe on Him, your every sin will be blotted out, and it will be your
privilege to know it.
In the second place, those who believe on Jesus Christ rejoice with
"inexpressible and glorious joy" because they are free from the most
grinding and crushing of all forms of slavery, the slavery of sin. There is
many a slave in this audience tonight. Some of you are slaves of strong
drink. Some of you men and some of you women are slaves of drink. You know
you are slaves of drink. Some of you are slaves of drugs. Some of you are
slaves of an uncontrollable temper. Some of you are slaves of acts of
impurity or impurity of thought. Some of you are slaves of other sins. The
grossest, vilest, most degrading slavery in the universe is the slavery of
sin. Yes, many of you here tonight are slaves. But the Lord Jesus says in
John 8:31, 32, " If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." He says
again in the thirty-sixth verse, "If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed." There is not a slave in this building tonight who
cannot have his chains snapped in a moment, yes, in a moment, by the mighty
Son of God, if only he will believe on Jesus and trust Him to do it. How
many a man and how many a woman I have known who once were slaves of sin in
its most degrading and hopeless forms, who now are free.
One of the dearest and most honored and most useful friends I ever had was
Sam Hadley of New York City. Sam Hadley was once hopelessly enslaved by sin.
Strong drink had utterly mastered him and undermined his character. He had
committed 138 forgeries, and was being sought for by the police. One night,
after having spent the night before in a New York jail with the "shakes," in
a mission meeting a few blocks away from the jail he cried to Jesus to save
him, and Jesus saved him right then and there; and I have often heard him
say that never from that night had he ever had the slightest desire for that
which had enslaved him more than anything else, intoxicating drink. My, what
a happy man he became! All who knew him testified that he had "inexpressible
and glorious joy." I wish you could have looked in Sam Hadley's face and
seen the joy in that redeemed and radiant countenance. But we do not need to
call Sam Hadley back from heaven to testify, for there are hundreds of
people right here in this building tonight who once were complete slaves,
who now are God's free men and free women, and who could testify to the
fact. That is one reason why we are inexpressibly happy, because we are
free. How the Southern Blacks rejoiced when they came to understand they
were set free. They shouted and sang, "Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!" Why?
Because once they were slaves, but now were free. No wonder, then, that we
rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because we know that we are
free, and free forever.
In the third place, those who believe on Jesus Christ rejoice with
"inexpressible and glorious joy," because they are delivered from all fear.
There is nothing that darkens the human heart more and robs it of all joy
and fills it with gloom than fear in some of its many forms.
Those who truly believe on Jesus Christ are saved from all fear. They are
delivered from all fear of misfortune; they are delivered from all fear of
man; they are delivered from all fear of death; they are delivered from all
fear of eternity. Do you know, friends, that to a true believer in Jesus
Christ "eternity" is one of the sweetest words in the English language? Oh,
how it makes our hearts swell, that word, "eternity." But "eternity" is not
a sweet word to the unsaved. Write these words, "Where will you spend
eternity?" on a card and hand it to a man who is not a Christian, and they
will make him mad; write these same words, "Where will you spend eternity?"
on a card and hand it to a Christian, and they will make him glad. Why is
it? Simply because a true believer on Jesus Christ is not afraid of but
delights in thoughts of eternity. Why, to him who believes on Jesus Christ
eternity is glory.
In the fourth place, he who believes on Jesus Christ rejoices with
"inexpressible and glorious joy" because he knows he will live forever. Is
not that something to rejoice over? Is it not wonderful? We read in 1 John
2:17, "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth
the will of God abideth for ever. We all know that it is true that "the
world passes away." We certainly ought to know it by this time; but it is
equally true that "he who does the will of God lives forever."
Sometimes as we ride along our beautiful roads we see the stately mansions
of our multimillionaires, and one will think, "It must be very pleasant to
live there." Well, I suppose it must be, but think a moment. How long will
these people live there? Perhaps the father of the household may live there
ten years, possibly twenty years. Then where does he live? Some of the
children may live there twenty, thirty, possibly, forty years, then what?
The grave. I tell you it is not worth much after all. But the Christian
looks on, and on, and on, to a life that has no end, to a life that is
eternal. Glory!
In the fifth place, those who truly believe on Jesus Christ rejoice greatly
with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because they know they are children of
God. It is a great thing to know that you are a child of God. How does the
Christian know it? He knows it because God says so in John 1:12, "But as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name:" A child of God, think of it! Sometimes as
I have traveled around the world someone would point out to me some man, and
say, "That man is the son of such and such a man, naming some king. Would
you not like to be the son of a great king? Just look at that young man. He
is the son of a king." In one country many years ago, when the king business
was better than it is today, I was taken up and introduced to the son of one
of the reigning monarchs of Europe, and the man who introduced me whispered
to me, "He is the son of So-and-So" (naming the king). Well, what of it? He
was a fine man in himself, but what if he was the son of a king? I am a son
of God, and that is far greater, and every believer in Jesus Christ in this
building tonight is a child of God, the child of "the King of kings." And
any one of you here tonight, if you are not already a child of God, can
become one in an instant by receiving the Lord Jesus.
In the sixth place, and very closely connected with the last, true believers
in Jesus Christ rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because they
are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Is that not wonderful?
We are so familiar with it we do not stop to take in the meaning of it. One
of England's dukes lay dying. He called his brother to him, the one who
would succeed to the title, and said, "Brother, in a few hours now you will
be a duke and-and I will be a king." He was already a child of the King and
in a few hours he himself would be a king. I, too, will be a king in a few
days. You may say, "It may be many years." Well, many years are only a few
days on the scale of eternity. And, if you really are a believer in Christ
Jesus, if you have a real living faith in Him, you, too, will be a king in a
few days.
There was never a royal pageant sweeping through the streets of London at
any coronation comparable in glory to the glory that awaits you and me just
over yonder. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4). We may be poor today. That does
not matter. This life will be over in a moment and the other life begun, and
that life is eternal.
In the seventh place, those who truly believe on Jesus Christ, those who
throw their hearts wide open to Him, is those who surrender absolutely to
Him, rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" because God gives them
the Holy Spirit, and there is no other joy in the present life like the joy
of the Holy Spirit. One Monday morning, in Chicago, my front doorbell rang.
I kept Monday in those days for my rest day, and had a notice above the
doorbell, "Mr. Torrey does not see anyone on Monday." The maid went to the
door, and there stood a poor woman. The maid said, "Mr. Torrey does not see
anyone on Monday. Did you not see the notice over the doorbell?" She said,
"I knew that, but I have got to see him and you just go and tell him a
member of his church must see him." So the maid brought her into the
reception room. She was a washerwoman. The maid showed the washerwoman a
seat and came upstairs and said to me, "There is a woman downstairs who is a
member of your church and says she has got to see you." So down I went.
As I entered the room she arose and hurried toward me, and said, "Mr.
Torrey, I knew you did not see anybody on Monday, but I had to see you. Last
night after I went to bed I was filled with the Holy Spirit right there in
my bed, and I was so happy I could not sleep all night, and this morning I
had to come and tell somebody. I could not afford to give up a day's work to
come around and tell you about it, but I knew I must tell somebody and I did
not know anybody I would so like to tell as you. I know you won't be angry."
Indeed, I was not angry. I was glad she had come, and rejoiced with her,
that old washerwoman filled with the Holy Spirit and so full of joy that,
poor as she was, she had to give up a day's work to go and tell somebody she
loved all about it.
Before I came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ I was one of the bluest
men who ever lived. I would sit down by the hour and brood. I have never
known what the blues mean since the day I really became a Christian,
absolutely surrendered to God. I have had troubles. I have had losses. There
have been times in my life when I have lost pretty much everything the world
holds dear. I know what it is to have a wife and four children, and to lose
everything of a financial kind I had in the world, and not know from meal to
meal where the next meal was coming from. I was absolutely without
resources, living from hand to mouth -from God's hand to my mouth. I have
known what it is to be with a wife and child in a foreign country where they
spoke a strange language, and for some reason or other supplies did not
come, and I did not know anyone in the city well enough to turn to for help;
but I did not worry. I knew it was all in God's hands, that it would all
come out right somehow, and of course it did come out right.
The first time I ever visited London, thirty-nine years ago last September,
I was planning to spend two weeks in England, and then start for America. I
expected to find money waiting for me I when I reached London, and I reached
London with a wife and child, and not a letter and no money. But I said,
"The letter and the money will come tomorrow or the next day." My wife made
some purchases, taking it for granted we would have money when the purchases
came home; but the money did not come. Day after day passed, and the dresses
came home and it was about time for the landlady to come with her board
bill. It came to be the very last day before our boat started, and not a
penny in sight. I went down to the bank. I did not know a soul in London.
There were three or four million people there then-a stranger amid three or
four millions of people, money absolutely gone, three thousand miles from
friends. I did not worry. I knew the money would come. I did not know how it
would come, for the source I expected to receive it from seemed utterly cut
off; but yet I was happy. Why? Because I was a child of God; I had the
promises of the Bible; I knew they were absolutely certain. I never lost an
hour's sleep. I never worried. I just trusted. It seemed as though I would
have to be fed somewhat as Elijah was, but I knew I would be fed. I knew my
wife and child would be provided for. The money came, and I sailed on the
steamer I expected to sail on, with every penny due paid, and money in my
pocket. Friends, a Christian is happy at all times and under all
circumstances. We rejoice with "inexpressible and glorious joy" every one of
the twenty-four hours of the day that we are awake, and sometimes in our
sleep. You, too, can have that joy.
II. How to Get This Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
Now arises the question, "What must anyone here tonight who does not have
this inexpressible and glorious joy do to get it?" I have really answered
that question several times in what I have already said, but to be sure that
we all really understand it, let me answer it again, or rather let my text
answer it, "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you
do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible
and glorious joy." The text tells us that the way to obtain this
"inexpressible and glorious joy," the way to be inexpressibly happy at all
times and under all circumstances, is just by believing on the unseen Christ
Jesus. What does it mean to believe on Jesus Christ? There is no mystery at
all about that. It simply means to put confidence in Jesus Christ to be what
He claims to be and what He offers Himself to be to us, to put confidence in
Him as the One who died in our place, the One who bore our sins in His own
body on the cross, and to trust God to forgive us all our sins because Jesus
Christ died in our place; to put confidence in Him as the One who was raised
from the dead and who now has "all power in heaven and on earth," and
therefore is able to keep us day by day, and give us victory over sin, and
to trust this risen Christ to give us victory over sin day by day; and to
put confidence in Him as our absolute Lord and Master, and therefore to
surrender our thoughts and wills and lives entirely to His control,
believing everything He says, even though every scholar on earth denies it,
obeying everything He commands, whatever it may cost; and to put confidence
in Him as our Divine Lord, and confess Him as Lord before the world, and
worship and adore Him. It is wonderful the joy that comes to him who thus
believes on Jesus Christ. But one must really believe on Jesus Christ to
have this joy.
Merely being a member of a church is not enough. Merely being baptized is
not enough. Merely reading your Bible is not enough. Merely praying is not
enough. Merely going to church is not enough. Merely going to the Lord's
table and partaking of the Lord's Supper is not enough. But if you are a
real believer on Jesus Christ, if you have put all your trust in the Lord
Jesus as your atoning Savior and your risen Savior, and your risen Lord and
Master, and surrendered your thoughts and life to Him utterly as your Lord
and Master, and are confessing Him as such before the world, if you have
thrown your heart's door wide open for the Lord Jesus to come in, and live,
and rule, and reign there, you will have "inexpressible and glorious joy" at
all times and under all circumstances.
All anyone has to do, then, to be inexpressibly happy at all times and under
all circumstances, is to believe on Jesus Christ. It does not make any
difference what his circumstances may be: he may be rich or he may be poor;
he may be highly educated, or he may be ignorant; he may be in good health
or he may be a hopeless invalid; he may have been a moral, clean, upright
man, or he may have been the vilest of sinners, it matters not. Everyone who
believes on the unseen but living Christ will find "inexpressible and
glorious joy." I can bring scores, hundreds, thousands of witnesses to prove
that. You cannot bring a single witness on the other side. Col. Robert
Ingersoll delighted to say, "It doesn't make one happy to be a Christian."
How did he know? He never tried it. You can search the earth through and you
cannot find me one single man or woman who was ever an out-and-out believer
in Jesus Christ, a real wholehearted believer in Jesus Christ, one who had
surrendered all to Jesus Christ; I say you cannot find me even one such man
or woman who will deny that Jesus Christ gives "inexpressible and glorious
joy" to those who thus believe on Him. Here, then, is the way the case
stands: Every single competent witness, that is, every witness who has ever
tried it, testifies that believing in Jesus Christ does bring "inexpressible
and glorious joy," and these witnesses number thousands, tens of thousands
and hundreds of thousands, people from every rank of society and culture,
and not one witness on the other side. Is it demonstrated or not? It
certainly is.
I take it that I am speaking tonight to reasonable men and women. You desire
"inexpressible and glorious joy." I have told you how to get it. There can
be no doubt about it. The evidence is overwhelmingly convincing. There is,
then, but one rational thing for you to do, believe on Jesus Christ tonight.
Will you do it?
Once a man who was utterly miserable came to me. He was a rarely gifted man,
a brilliant scholar, but utterly miserable. If ever I saw a man in hell he
was the man. He had attempted suicide at least four times. He had been so
near succeeding in his attempts that on two occasions it had been necessary
to pump out of him the poison he had taken and thus bring him back to life.
I urged him to believe on Jesus Christ. He replied, "I cannot, I have sinned
away the Day of Grace." Day after day I talked with the man and always I had
but one message, and that was, "Come to Jesus Christ. Believe on Jesus
Christ." At last, one day the man did come to Jesus Christ. He found
"inexpressible and glorious joy." Sometimes I have seen that man when his
face was radiant. Out of hell into heaven by just believing on Jesus Christ!
Will you take that same step now? |
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