Nehemiah 8:9-10 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said to all the people… All deep religion ought to be joyful, and all strong religion assuredly will be. I. JOY IN THE LORD IS THE NATURAL RESULT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. 1. Because of what it gives us. (1) A sense of acceptance with God. (2) God for the rest of our spirits. (3) Communion with Him. 2. Because of what it takes away from us. (1) The fear that lies before us. (2) The strifes that lie within us, the desperate conflict between conscience and inclination, our will and our passions. (3) The sense of sin. Faith in Christ naturally works gladness.It also produces sorrow — solemn, manly, noble, and strong. This is not contradictory. All great thoughts have a solemn quiet in them, which not unfrequently merges, into a still sorrow: "As sorrowing, yet always rejoicing." These two states of mind, both of them the natural operation of any deep faith, may co-exist and blend into one another, so as that the gladness is sobered, and chastened, and made manly and noble; and that the sorrow is like some thunder-cloud, all streaked with bars of sunshine, that go into its deepest depths. The joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow springs from the same root as the gladness. They blend into one another; just as, in the Arctic regions, deep down beneath the cold snow, you shall find the budding of the early spring flowers and the fresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water; just as in the midst of the undrinkable sea there may be welling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a deeper depth than the great ocean around it. The Christian life is all like one of those spring showers in early April, when the rain-drops weave for us a mist that hides the sunshine, and yet the hidden sun is in every sparkling drop, and they are all saturated and steeped in its light. The joy of the Lord is the natural result of Christian faith. II. JOY IS A CHRISTIAN DUTY. It is a commandment here and also in the New Testament. It follows from this that the degree to which a Christian life shall be a cheerful life is dependent in a large measure upon our own volitions. By the selection or the rejection of the appropriate subjects which shall make the main portion of our religious contemplations we can determine the complexion of our religious life. Just as you inject colouring matter into the fibres of some anatomical preparation, so a Christian may, as it were, inject into all the veins of his religious character and life, either the bright tints of gladness, or the dark ones of Self-despondency. If your thoughts are chiefly occupied with God, and what He has done and is for you, then you will have peaceful joy. If, on the other hand, they are bent ever on yourself and your own unbelief, then you will always be sad. It is only where there is much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. If there is but little heat around the bulb of the thermometer, no wonder that the mercury marks a low degree. If there is but small faith there will not be much gladness. III. REJOICING IN THE LORD IS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH. All gladness has something to do with our efficiency; for it is the prerogative of man that his force comes from his mind, and not from his body. If we have hearts full of light and souls at rest in Christ, work will be easy, endurance will be easy, sorrows will be bearable, trials will not be so very hard; and above all temptations we shall be lifted and set upon a rock. If the soul is full, and full of joy, what side will be exposed to any temptation? If it appeal to fear, the gladness that is there is the answer. If it appeal to passion, desire, wish for pleasure of any sort, there is no need for any more -the heart is full Christian gladness, like the magic shield of the old legends, invisible in its crystalline purity, will repel all the "fiery darts of the wicked." (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. |
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