Joy. the mark of a Christian
A Sermon on John 1:16
Scripture
16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Sermon Description
In this sermon from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on John 1:16, listeners are told that joy is the mark of a Christian. This joy spoken of in the book of John is that God’s children receive joy when they receive the fullness that comes through salvation in Jesus Christ. Dr. Lloyd-Jones elaborates that the most effective evangelism program in existence is the joy of Christians. He argues that one of the biggest problems in the church is the lack of rejoicing among believers. He also says that any joy that is not in Christ is of a counterfeit nature. Since only true joy is to be found in God, any other joy is not genuine as it is found in the self. Paul tells in Philippians 3 that Christian confidence cannot be found in the flesh. If anyone could have been confident in the flesh, it was Paul who was a most educated and prominent man. Rather, confidence must be found in Christ. We must count any gain as loss for the sake of Christ. This, Dr. Lloyd-Jones preaches, is the essence of Christian joy. Christians are to rejoice in the wonderful works of God’s Son on their behalf. They are to rejoice because in receiving the fullness of God upon salvation, they receive Christ’s righteousness.
Sermon Breakdown
- The Christian's joy is always in the Lord. It is not dependent on circumstances but on who God is and what He has done.
- We rejoice in God because of who He is - the Son of God, the eternal Word who became flesh to save us.
- We rejoice in what God has done - He humbled Himself, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven. All for us.
- We rejoice in the change God has produced in us. We have been delivered from mechanical, external religion that depends on works.
- We have been delivered from confidence in the flesh - relying on our ancestry, knowledge, zeal, and own righteousness to save us.
- We now worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. We have been born again into God's family.
- We now have the perfect righteousness of Christ - not our own righteousness from the law. Our sins are forgiven and we have peace with God.
- The Christian life is one of joy and rejoicing in the Lord - who He is, what He has done, the change He has made in us, and what He has delivered us from.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.