Sound The Trumpet : The Source of Joy

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“The Source of Joy”
by Hugh Davidson
October 18th, 2009

The source of joy

John 16:12-24, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

You'll notice that in verse 13 that the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of truth and why do you think Jesus calls Him the Spirit of truth? Well, it’s because Jesus wants to emphasize that everything the Holy Spirit says is true. He never makes a mistake and He never misleads anyone because not only does He have perfect knowledge but He is also incapable of ever telling a lie. Now listen, this is very important because this tells us that if the Holy Spirit inspired and oversaw the recording of the word of God then there can’t be any mistakes in it. If there are any mistakes in the Bible then men did not speak as they were moved by the Holy Spirit according to the scripture and if the Bible’s not true then either God is a liar or He didn't write it. You see, you can’t tamper with what we believe about the inspiration of the Bible without interfering with what we believe about the very nature of God.

We are also told that the Spirit then will reveal all things. And first of all He reveals the past. John 14:26 says, “The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send when He comes, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance.” So, the first thing He does is teach us from our personal history. Did you ever stop to think that everything you’ve ever experienced and every person you ever met had a purpose? You see, God has used all these things to make you be the person you are today. I heard someone say, “I’m a self-made man.” Well, that sounds like a great idea but listen, did he feed himself when he was a baby? Did he teach himself when he was in grade school? Did he pave the roads he drove on? There’s no such thing as a self-made man. The second thing the Holy Spirit does is to teach us in the present. In chapter 15 verse 26 it says, "But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me." This tells us the Holy Spirit is constantly teaching us spiritual truth and I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is, how much am I listening? And then here in verse 13 it says the third thing He does is to show us the future and that’s the prophetic nature of His ministry. So, the Holy Spirit reveals the past, He explains the present and He shows us the future. Now, how does He do all this? He is the eternal Spirit and that means that He’s in all three portions of time at once.

This passage also deals with the promise that Jesus Christ gave to the disciples that the Holy Spirit would come and lead them into all truth. The all truth that He is talking about is now recorded for us in the pages of the New Testament. In fact, the Bible repeatedly makes the claim that this is no ordinary book but this is in fact, the very Word of God. The Bible claims repeatedly to have the authority and power of the Spirit of God Himself. In fact, it actually claims that it was written by the Holy Spirit. Even though there were human authors, the words from their own vocabularies were divinely selected by the Holy Spirit, organized in the manner that He wanted them to be organized and placed back through the mind of the writer to record exactly what He wanted said to the very word.

Now there’s one more thing I want to focus on in this section and that’s the joy of the Lord that comes as a result of our walking in the fullness of the Spirit. And we see this in verses 19-24. “Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, a little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

And in the Christian life the Bible tells us there are three different conditions for the believer. There is no joy, then there’s joy and then there’s full joy. And I believe there are many Christians who have no joy and that is really a poor advertisement for the faith. And you know the type, they’re just dragging themselves along spiritually and they’re enduring rather than enjoying their faith. They’re not into the word, they’re not witnessing and they usually show up when the weather’s good or if there’s a quartet singing. And then there are others who have joy and they’re happy they’re saved but that’s about it. And if anyone ever asks them if they’re saved they’ll share their testimony like it was a secret and maybe mumble it in a corner like it was something they ought to be ashamed of. And then there are those who have full joy. And being filled with the Spirit of joy is connected with a couple of things but I want you to see one primary key. In verse 24 it says, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name, ask, and ye shall receive that your joy may be full.” So, full joy is the result of asking God for things and then receiving them. And all this has to do with prayer. Listen, answered prayer brings full joy. And this isn’t just asking for ourselves but it’s asking that God may be glorified.

Have you ever been excited when God answers a prayer? In I Thessalonians 5:16 it says, “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing.” We see the same thing in Philippians 4:4 where it says, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God.” These verses tell us we’ll know full joy when we pray and God answers. And yet, there’s a problem. You see, in order for God to answer our prayers we have to what? We have to pray.

When you see a Christian going around with a kind of mealy mouth, griping, bitter or cynical, they’re not like that because life had dealt them a heavy hand but they’re that way because they haven’t prayed and they have no joy. If we really want joy we’ll find it in the place of prayer.

It must break the heart of God to see Christians who are bitter or cynical and have no joy when He’s provided the way for us to have it all. And then notice the point He makes when He says, "Your sorrow will turn into joy." Notice the way he puts that. He does not say, "After you have had a lot of sorrow, then I am going to give you some joy." No, what He is talking about is the consequence of sorrow when He says your sorrow will be the very thing that causes your joy. And He uses a beautifully illustration here when He talks about childbirth. What causes the mother's pain? It’s the baby. But what causes her joy? It’s the same baby. And this describes the process that we believers are going to go through again and again. We go through pain in life and the result is joy if we have the right attitude.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13