Who Are They?
(Continued.)
4. Paul had the joy of heaven in his heart.
THERE is nothing doleful, nothing gloomy, about the believer’s portion. Even an Old Testament saint could say, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time when their corn and their wine increased” (Psa. 4:77Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. (Psalm 4:7)). But when you come to New Testament believers, what do they say? Listen to Paul’s testimony: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:44Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)). Hear next what the apostle John says: “These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:44And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. (1 John 1:4)). Then think of Peter’s words to the strangers scattered: “Whom having not seen ye love: in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Anything gloomy about this? It is joy! JOY! JOY!
But how often would God have us taste this joy? Paul answers, “Always.”
How much of it? John says, “The fullness of it.”
What kind of joy is it? A “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” responds Peter.
Oh, yes, and we have great occasion to be a rejoicing people. At the very commencement of our new history there is joy in heaven about us. There might justly have been judgment from heaven upon us; but the moment we judged ourselves, that is, the moment we repented, there was joy in heaven about us; and this was quickly followed by a taste of this joy in our own hearts, for the indwelling Spirit filled us with “all joy and peace in believing.”
What must have been the joy in the presence of the angels when Saul of Tarsus was brought to repentance What joy must have possessed the heart of that subdued champion persecutor when he discovered who it was that bore the name he hated, and that His tenderest compassions were towards him. No wonder, when he wrote to others, that he said, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” No wonder that “patient ‘continuance “and” always abounding “should mark his service to that same Lord, from the first day to the very end.
Did you ever consider why men should point to a bird as their ideal of happiness? “As happy as a bird,” they say. Is it not because a bird is naturally one of the brightest, freest, happiest of God’s creatures? Yet how Paul’s joy in that desolate dungeon at Philippi far exceeded all that nature could produce in like circumstances!
Very few birds will sing in the night at all, but not even a caged nightingale would sing in the dark with both its legs tied. Yet Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight with their feet last in the stocks.
Again, a hungry bird will rarely sing, and a wounded bird never Paul and Silas, with bleeding backs, sang so heartily that the other prisoners heard them. When the Holy. Spirit is ungrieved, inside rejoicings are not to be silenced even by the fiercest outside buffetings.
No. The joys of a Christian are not dependent upon things being exactly to his taste in this world. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:1717For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17)).
“Rejoice in Him! again, again,
The Spirit strikes the chord,
And faith takes up the happy strain,
Our joy is in the Lord.”
5. He has the aid of heaven in his service.
It is a comfort to remember that the Lord’s personal support may be as confidently counted on by one who really serves from love to his Master today, as it was counted on by His most honored servants at the beginning.
He may not be pleased to send an earthquake to shake open a prison door to let you out, but He can open some cottage door, or, if He pleases, a palace door, to let you with your message in. And not only so, but He can as truly use you to a conversion as He used Paul to the jailer’s. It is as easy for Him to shake the foundations of a prison as to open the heart of a Lydia or alarm, the conscience of a jailer.
All we need is to begin and continue in Paul’s attitude, and say, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” It must be “Thou” and “me.” No intruder must come between. “He gave to every man his work” (Mark 13:3434For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. (Mark 13:34)). He claims the right to send forth laborers into His harvest (Matt. 9:3838Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. (Matthew 9:38)). We must therefore not set ourselves to work as if we were our own masters. He must be consulted. “He that waiteth on his Master shall be honored.”
If you want to go north, a train going south will not be of any service to you, strong as the engine and careful as the driver may be. And if we want His support in our service we must be found in the way of His will, and to this end we must be zealously watchful to accept nothing else. Another way may sometimes seem preferable, because apparently more successful―a quicker, a more ready route to the end desired― but the servant devoted to his Master’s pleasure will seek to do His will, and count nothing successful that does not leave the heart conscious of His approval. “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor” (John 12:2626If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:26)).
Let us now recapitulate. He has―
1. The call of heaven at his start.
2. Fitness for heaven in his state.
3. The mind of heaven in his path.
4. The joy of heaven in his heart.
5. The aid of heaven in his service.
6. The welcome of heaven as his hope.
Yes. He may count on the welcome of heaven when his work is done. It is Jesus Himself who receives the spirits of His saints when they depart. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” said the dying Stephen. Think what that must be, and press on more ardently. When, at last, He fulfils His promise and comes again, He will “gird Himself, and make His watching ones sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:3737Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Luke 12:37)). What a welcome! Oh, let its think what that reception must be, and let us gird up more vigorously to serve Him here.
That these heavenly hopes and privileges may be better known and more highly prized by every young convert who reads these pages, is the writer’s earnest desire. GEO. C.