God Rejoicing in the New Creation

God Rejoicing in the New Creation

(No. 2211)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 5, 1891,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Behold, I create new hea vens and a new earth: and the former shall
not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice
forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I wiil rejoice in Jerusalem, and
joy in My people." Isaiah 65:17-19.

THIS passage, like the rest of Isaiah's closing chapters, will have
complete fulfillment in the latter days when Christ shall come, when
the whole company of His elect ones shall have been gathered out from
the world, when the whole creation shall have been renewed, when new
heavens and a new earth shall be the product of the Savior's power,
when, forever and forever, perfected saints of God shall behold His
face and joy and rejoice in Him. I hope and believe that the following
verses will actually describe the condition of the redeemed during the
reign of Christ upon the earth–"There shall be no more thence an
infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the
child shall die an hundred years old. They shall build houses, and
inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of
them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant,
and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people,
and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not
labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of
the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall
come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are
yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the
serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain, says the Lord."

But the work which is spoken of in the text is already begun among us.
There is to be a literal new creation, but that new creation has
already commenced and I think, therefore, that even now we ought to
manifest a part of the joy. If we are called upon to be glad and
rejoice in the completion of the work, let us rejoice even in the
commencement of it! The Lord Himself will joy and rejoice–and we who
are in sympathy with Him are exhorted and even commanded to be
glad–let us not be slack in this heavenly duty.

Do you know what this work of creation is, which is here thrice
promised in the words, "I create. . .I create . . .I create"? It is
evidently a second creation, which is altogether to eclipse the first,
and put it out of mind. Shall I tell the story?

The first creation was so fair that when the Lord looked upon it, with
man as its climax and crown, He said, "It is very good." But it failed
in man, who should have been its glory! Man sinned and in his sin he
was so connected with the whole of the earth that he dragged it down
with him! The slime of the serpent passed over everything. The taint of
sin marred the whole of God's work in this lower world. The creation
was made subject to vanity and it groans in pain even now. But the
Infinitely Blessed would not be defeated. And in infinite condescension
He determined that He would make a new creation which would rise upon
the ruins of the first. He resolved that under a second Adam, something
more than Paradise should be restored to the universe. He purposed that
He would undo, through Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman, all the
mischief that had been worked by the serpent. He has commenced to undo
this mischief and to work this new creation–and so commenced that He
will never withdraw His hand till the work is done.

He has commenced it thus–by putting new hearts into as many as He has
called by His Spirit, regenerating them and making them to become new
creatures in Christ Jesus. These, the Apostle tells us, are a kind of
first-fruits of this new creation. We are the commencement of the
future ingathering. Our new-born spirits are the first ripe ears of
corn out of a wonderful harvest that will come, by-and-by. The saints'
spirits are, first of all, new-created, but their bodily parts re-

main in the old creation. Hence we suffer pain, for though the Spirit
is life because of righteousness, "the body is dead because of sin."
By-and-by our bodies shall be new-created, when, from beds of dust and
silent clay, we shall leap up into immortal beauty! The resurrection
will be to the body what regeneration is to the soul. When body and
soul are thus created anew, the whole earth around them in which they
shall dwell, shall be, at the same time, also renewed. And so God shall
make the spirits, the minds, the bodies and the abodes of men all new.
These bodies, quickened by His Spirit who dwells in us, and united to
souls purified and refined, shall tread upon an earth delivered from
the curse and shall be canopied beneath new heavens! Have they not new
desires? Should not all above them be new? They shall tread a new earth
for they have new ways.

Inasmuch as this ought to be the subject ofjoy and the text invites us
to it, I come to press upon you the sweet duty of present delight! Oh,
when happiness is made a precept, when joy is made a command, I cannot
but hope that God's people, to whom I am now speaking, will answer the
call! Has joy become a duty? Then we will be joyous! Has gladness
become a precept? Then we will gladly enough obey and our heart shall
dance for joy! I will read the text again and then we will consider
what sort ofjoy it is which is to arise out of the work of Divine Grace
in the new creation. "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and
the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad
and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create
Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in
Jerusalem, and joy in My people."

I. First, then, concerning the joy to which we are called, we would
say, IT IS A JOY IN CREATION–"Behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth. I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy."

I must confess that I think it a most right and excellent thing that
you and I should rejoice in the natural creation of God. I do not think
that any man is altogether beyond hope who can take delight in the
nightly heavens as he watches the stars and feel joy as he treads the
meadows all bedecked with kingcups and daisies. He is not lost to
better things who, on the waves, rejoices in the creeping things
innumerable drawn up from the vast deep, or who, in the woods, is
charmed with the sweet carols of the feathered minstrels. The man who
is altogether bad seldom delights in Nature, but gets away into the
artificial and the sensual. He cares little enough for the fields
except he can hunt in them; little enough for lands unless he can raise
rent from them; little enough for living things except for slaughter or
for sale. He welcomes night only for the indulgence of his sins and the
stars are not half as bright to him as the lights that men have
kindled–for him, indeed, the constellations shine in vain!

One of the purest and most innocent of joys, apart from spiritual
things, in which a man can indulge, is a joy in the works of God. I
confess I have no sympathy with the good man, who, when he went down
the Rhine, dived into the cabin that he might not see the river and the
mountains lest he should be absorbed in them and forget his Savior. I
like to see my Savior on the hills and by the shores of the sea! I hear
my Father's voice in the thunder and listen to the whispers of His love
in the cadence of the sunlit waves. These are my Father's works and,
therefore, I admire them and I seem all the nearer to Him when I am
among them. If I were a great artist, I would think it a very small
compliment if my son came into my house and said he would not notice
the pictures I had painted because he only wanted to think of me. He
therein would condemn my paintings, for if they were good for anything,
he would be rejoiced to see my hand in them!

Oh, but surely, everything that comes from the hand of such a Master
Artist as God has something in it of Himself! The Lord rejoices in His
works and shall not His people do so? He said of what He had made, "It
is very good." And He cannot be very good, himself, who thinks that
which God makes is not very good. In this he contradicts his God! It is
a beautiful world we live in–

"Every prospect pleases, And only man is vile."

There are lovely spots on this fair globe which ought to make even a
blasphemer devout. I have said, among the mountains, "He who sees no
God here is mad!" There are things that God has made which overwhelm
with a sense of His Omnipotence–how can men see them and doubt the
existence of the Deity? Whether you consider the anatomy of the body,
or the conformation of the mighty heavens, you wonder that the scorner
does not bow his head–at least in silence–and acknowledge the
infinite supremacy of God!

Well, now, if there is–and I am sure there is–something pure and
elevating in joy in God as the Creator of ordinary things–as the Maker
of all this first creation–much more is there something bright, pure
and spiritually exhila-

rating in rejoicing in God's higher works, in God's spiritual works, in
God's new creation! I think if a man feels within him a new heart and
rejoices in his new birth. If he sees in others new and holier lives
and rejoices in them. If he listens to the preaching of the Gospel and
discovers in it new and better principles such as the old worn-out
world could never have discovered–why, that man is a gracious man! The
eye that can see the new nature is an eye that Grace has given and
newly opened to new light. The heart that can rejoice in the new
creation is a heart that is, itself, renewed, or else it would not
comprehend spiritual things and could not rejoice in them. I invite
you, therefore, dear Friends–you that see, know and somewhat
appreciate the new creation in its beginnings–to joy and to rejoice in
it tonight!

It is a delightful thing that God should make a tree and bid it come
forth in Spring with all its budding verdure. It is a far better thing
that God should take a poor thorny heart like yours and mine–and
transform it till it becomes like the fir tree or the pine tree to His
praise. It is a charming sight when bulbs that have slept under ground
through the winter, hold up their golden cups to be filled with the
glory of the returning sun. But how much better that hearts that have
lain dead in trespasses and sins should be moved by the secret touch of
the Spirit of God to welcome the Sun of Righteousness and to rejoice in
Him! How glorious to see a slum become a sanctuary, a den of thieves a
house of God! This is even more wonderful than for darkness to become
light and chaos yield to order. God's new creation, even in its
beginnings here and now, is a something to delight one's soul in! I
pray you, delight yourselves therein. Behold, in the creation of a new
heart, the manifest finger of God! What power to turn the human
will–to subdue fierce passions–to change the very core and center of
the heart! This is power in the moral and spiritual world as great as
anything which can be seen even in the convulsions of earthquakes.

Herein is wisdom, too! We speak of the wisdom of God as seen in
anatomy, in botany, or in astronomy. Yet this wisdom is still more to
be seen in regeneration–in the making of the sinner who wandered from
God to become a saint who follows after holiness–in the bringing of
the opposer of Christ to become His friend and advocate. To rule the
will and yet leave it free. To guide the heart and yet to let it
choose. To reverse the law of being and yet to violate no law of man's
nature–herein is the wisdom of the Highest, Himself! The attributes of
God are to be seen in the visible creation, but they are to be seen in
a brighter and superior light in the new creation. There is not one of
the attributes of God which has not its illustration under the economy
of Grace and, blessed shall your whole being be if you can, to the
fullest, rejoice in that which God creates!

There is one reason why you are called upon to rejoice in it, namely,
that you are a part of it. When the angels saw God making this world,
they sang together and shouted for joy–but they were not a part of
this lower world. They had nothing to do with man's estate, but as a
matter of sympathy. But as for this new creation of our gracious God,
you and I, Beloved, who have believed in Jesus, are part of it! That
same Grace which has quickened others into new life, has quickened us.
The same Spirit who has given new principles and new desires to others,
has also given them to us. The Father has begotten us, again, by the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are the central beings
of the new creation and so let us joy and rejoice in it with all our
soul, mind and strength!

I know, when I lay sorely sick and tormented in body, it seemed always
to be such a joy to me that I, myself, my inner self, my spirit, has
been new-created and that my nobler part could rise above the suffering
and soar into the pure heavens of the spiritual realm! And I have said
of this poor body, "You have not yet been new-created. Still does the
venom of the old serpent taint you, but you shall yet be delivered. You
shall rise again if you die and are buried, or you shall be changed if
the Lord should suddenly come. You, poor body, you that drags me down
to the dust in pain and sorrow, even you shall rise and be made anew in
'the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body'–for the new
creation has begun in me, even the earnest of the Spirit." O Beloved,
can't you rejoice in this? I would incite you to do so. Rejoice in what
God is doing in this new creation! Let your whole spirit be glad!
Overflow with gladness! Let loose the torrents of praise! Leap down,
you cataracts of joy!

Well, that is our first point. It is a joy in creation.

II. And, secondly, IT IS A JOY WHICH WILL ECLIPSE ALL THAT HAS GONE
BEFORE.

Now, my text is, "And the former shall not be remembered, nor come into
mind." God's great new-creating work ought to fill us with such joy as
to make us forget the old creation, as though we said to
ourselves–"What are the sun and the moon? We shall not have need of
these variable lights in the perfection of the new creation, for in
Heaven, 'They need no candle, neither light of the sun.'" What is the
sea, though it is the very mirror of beauty? In that new creation

there will be no more sea–storms and tempests will be all unknown.
What are these luxuries of sight and hearing? We shall not need them
when our eyes shall behold the King in His beauty in the land that is
very far off! The joy of the spiritual is such that, while it admits
the joy of the natural, yet, nevertheless, it swallows it up as Aaron's
rod swallowed up the rods of the magicians. In those last days we shall
be in tune with Dr. Watts when he sang–

"Lo! what a glorious sight appears

To our believing eyes!

The earth and seas are passed away,

And the old rolling skies.

From the third Heaven, where God resides,

That holy, happy place,

The new Jerusalem comes down,

Adorned with shining Grace.

The God of Glory down to men

Removes His blessed abode,

Men the dear objects of His Grace,

And He their loving God.

His own soft hands shall wipe the tears

From every weeping eye,

And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears,

And death itself shall die."

As an instance of the expulsive power of a new delight, we all know how
the memory of the old dispensation is gone from us. Brothers and
Sisters, did any of you ever weep because you did not sit at the
Passover? Did you ever regret the Paschal lamb? Oh, never, because you
have fed on Christ! Was there ever a man that knows his Lord that ever
did lament that he had not the sign of the old Abrahamic Covenant in
his flesh? No, he gladly dispenses with the rites of the Old Covenant,
since he has the fullness of their meaning in his Lord. The Believer is
circumcised in Christ, buried in Christ, risen in Christ and in Christ
exalted to the heavenly places! Did you ever regret the absence of the
burnt offering, or the red heifer, or any of the sacrifices and rites
of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the feast of tabernacles, or the
dedication? No, because, though those were like the old heavens and
earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we now live
under new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of Divine
teaching is concerned. The Substance is come and the shadow has
gone–and we do not remember it.

Now, I want you to feel just the same with regard to all your former
life as you now feel towards that old dispensation. The world is dead
to you and you to the world. Carnal customs and attractions are, for
you, abolished, even as the ancient sacrifices are abolished. What were
your sins? They are blotted out. The depths have covered them. You
shall never see them again. Seek not after them as though you had a
lingering esteem for them. Let them not come to mind except to excite
you to repentance! What were your pleasures when you lived in sin?
Forget them! They were flavorless, deceptive, destructive evils. You
now have a higher pleasure which enchants your soul. What have been the
sorrows of your past life, especially your sorrows while coming to
Christ? You need not remember them, but, like the woman who remembers
no more her travail for the joy that a man is born into the world, so
your birth into the new creation causes you to forget all the
sufferings of your spirit in coming there.

"Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!" I
would to God that the joy of the new creation would so fill us right up
to the brim that we should not imagine any other joy! This puts out all
other joy as the sun hides all the stars. Let all go! Let all go!
Rolled up as the heavens and the earth are to be, like vestures all
worn, let all of my past life be laid aside. Now put I on my new dress
of sparkling joy and delight in the new things, for has not Christ made
all things new to me? A new song is in my mouth, even praise to Him
forevermore! A new Law is in my heart and a new service engages all my
powers.

There is great scope for enlargement here, but I will not linger, lest
I chase away your joy by speaking about it unto weariness.

III. In the third place, IT IS A PRESENT AND A LASTING JOY. "But be you
glad and rejoice FOREVER in that which I create." Be now glad and now
rejoice–it is a present joy. Take a delightful interest in that which
God is now creating in the spiritual realm–though the work is only in
the doing, yet be glad concerning it! Be glad in anything

that the Lord has created in you. Has He created in you so much of the
new life as to have produced conviction, repentance, faith in Christ,
hope in the promise, longing for holiness? Be glad in this even if you
have other circumstances pressing upon you and causing you to be heavy
of heart. Though you might be mourning because you are so sickly, yet
be glad that you are born again! If somewhat distressed because you are
so poor, yet be glad that you are a child of God and have a place in
the new family of love! Let the old things go and grasp the new, the
heavenly. The old creation–bear with it a little longer, for the time
of your redemption from its bondage draws near. Find your joy where God
would have you find it, namely, in that part of your nature which is
new, in the new principles, the new promises, the New Covenant and the
blood of the New Covenant which are yours–all of them! Look no longer
for the living among the dead, but let your heart dwell in the living
world with your living Lord and be glad! The Kingdom of God is within
you! Rejoice in it!

And I want you, also, to find your joy in the new creation of God as
you see it in others. The angels rejoice over one sinner that
repents–surely you and I ought to do so! Try and do good and bring
others to Christ–and when a soul shows signs of turning to its God,
let that be your joy. "Be glad and rejoice in that which I create." I
have had many rich draughts from this cup. I do not know anything that
has made me so happy, hundreds and thousands of times in my life, as to
see God at work in men's hearts and, without exaggeration, to hear of
this one and of that one brought to Christ through the hearing or the
reading of my sermons! It has been a Heaven to me! Oh, you may drink as
much as you like of this cup of sympathy with God in His new creation
work! There is no intoxication about it–to find a joy in the work of
God in the hearts of others is healthy, unselfish delight!

I know some snarling people who, if they hear of one being converted,
say "they hope it is genuine," which, being interpreted, means that
they do not believe it is–and they almost hope it is not. "Oh, but,"
they say, if there is a great work done anywhere, "I never did like
excitement! When I hear of many conversions, I expect many
backsliding." Cold, dead fish that they are, excitement would not hurt
them. A little boiling might do them good, perhaps. Yes, but if they
meet with one who is an eminent Christian and whose public character
will bear the closest inspection, they say, "Ah, well! We do not know
what he is like at home." And so they have always some sly word to say
against God's work, just like the serpent in Eden coming and hissing,
"Yes, has God said?" I would far rather be one of those that can see
the beauty of God's handiwork in my fellow Christians, than one who can
spy out their defects.

I think it is very beautiful where John Bunyan represents Christiana
and Mercy as admiring each other. They had both enjoyed a wash in that
wonderful beauty-giving bath and Mercy said to Christiana, "How
beautiful you are! I never saw anyone look so lovely as you are." But
Christiania said that she was not beautiful at all–she could not see
anything about herself to admire, while in Mercy she saw everything to
esteem and love. Oh, to have an eye for the work of God in other people
and to rejoice in it! Such an eye sees not itself and yet it is,
itself, one of God's loveliest works. "Be you glad and rejoice," says
God, "in that which I create."

Can we decline the sacred invitation? No, rather let us thankfully
enter into the joy of our Lord! Be thankful for what God has done for
yourself. Be thankful for what God is doing in other people. And
remember that if you once begin this joy, you need never renounce it,
for the text says, "Be you glad and rejoice forever." Every day and all
day, this light of joy is shining, for the Creator stays not His hand!
As long as you live there will be something in the new creation that
shall be to you a wellspring of fresh joy and delight. Heaven will only
enlarge this joy. Be glad forever because God will always be creating
something fresh in which you may be glad!

IV. Again, in the fourth place, it may be said of the joy which we
ought to feel, that IT IS A JOY WHICH GOD INTENDED FOR US, "For,
behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." He has
made the new city, the new people, the new world to be a source of joy!

Take Jerusalem as the emblem of the Church of God. God always intended
that His chosen, called and converted people should be a rejoicing. He
created you on purpose, that you should, yourselves, be happy and bring
happiness to others! Do you not know that His name is the happy God and
nothing gives Him greater happiness than to give happiness to His
creatures? Do you think you were chosen to be a groaner all your days?
Were you called to misery, dear Brother, Sister? Does Jesus Christ say,
"Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will make
you doleful"? Does He say, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, and
you shall find agony in your hearts"? No! But He talks about rest,
peace, joy and blessedness.

One wrote to me, some years ago, and said that he came into this
congregation and he felt at once that he must be in the wrong place
because he found so large an assembly. God's people, he said, are a
small remnant. There are few that shall be saved. He had settled that
matter in his own expanded soul. But he was still more sure that he was
in the wrong place when he looked at me, for I looked happy! And in his
judgment, if I had known anything about the experience of a tried child
of God, my face would have been much longer, more wrinkled and more
sadly serious. I confess that my face does betray, at times, the fact
that I am happy–but I cannot help it! But when this good man looked
round on the great congregation–you were not all here then–but when
he looked round on the vast congregation and saw them all looking so
happy, he felt that he must get out of the building as soon as he
could, for such smiling people could not be the afflicted people of
God! He walked, he said, some distance along our streets, feeling heavy
at heart because of the joy he had witnessed, but at last he reached a
Chapel place in a court.

The very aspect of the Chapel gave him hope–it was so small and so
hidden away. He entered, and, to his satisfaction, he found in the
congregation less than a score–here were the faithful few! At any
rate, he could say of this, "Is it not a little one?" The minister was
as doleful as could be desired and the subject was full of lamentation.
He tells me that he sat down there in peace, for he found himself at
home! I am glad he was suited. Different people have different ways,
you know, and some love to be comfortably wretched. But I find myself
miserable only when I keep away from my Lord and His work of
new-creation. I have always found that when I can get under the shadow
of His wings, my soul is at rest and I look upon that restfulness and
happiness as the work and fruit of the Spirit–"the fruit of the Spirit
is joy and peace."

My impression is that I am not right when I give way to depression and
melancholy. I certainly should not go to a place of worship seeking for
doubt and despondency! Neither should I conclude that I must be on the
way to Heaven because I felt in my own heart some of the miseries of
Hell. When I am despondent, I say to myself, "Why are you cast down, O
my Soul?" I probably know as much about depression of spirit as any man
that lives, but I consider myself foolish and blameworthy–a fool for
knowing so much darkness–and I do not want to feel any more of it. I
would like to drive myself out of it once and for all if I could, for
we ought to be glad and rejoice forever in that which God creates! He
has created His people as a rejoicing–yes, His people to be a joy!
Ours is a heritage of joy and peace! My dear Brothers and Sisters, if
anybody in the world ought to be happy, we are the people! How large
our obligations! How boundless our privileges! How brilliant our
hopes!–

"Bright the prospect soon that greets us

Of that longed-for nuptial day

When our heavenly Bridegroom meets us

On His kingly, conquering way!

In Glory, bride and Bridegroom reign forever."

What should make us miserable? Shall the children of the bride chamber
mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? Sin?–that is forgiven!
Affliction?–that is working our good! Inward corruptions?–they are
doomed to die! Satanic temptations?–we wear an armor which they cannot
penetrate! We have every reason for delight and we have, moreover, this
command for it, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give
you the desires of your heart." God bring us into that blessed
condition and keep us there!

God intended not only that we should have joy, but that we should
spread it among others. He intends that wherever we go, we should be
light-bearers and set other lamps shining. Why are some so afraid of
joy? They seem, wherever they go, to be busy in turning out the lambs.
The first thing to be done is, "Take that child out." Dear little
child, with its pleasant prattle, so happy at your feet!–why send it
away? If there is a very happy hymn in the book, do not sing it–it
would be presumptuous! Sing–

"Lord, what a wretched land is this."

Crooked meter, key dismal, dolorous tune! I fear that certain
Christians go through this world making it miserable as they march
through it. Oh, that they could see that Christ has come to destroy the
works of the devil and would have us rejoice in the new creation of our
God!

Alas, there are heady, hard-hearted persons abroad who, by their
willfulness and pride, would crush every flower in the garden beneath
their wicked hoofs! Wherever they go, everything is despised, ridiculed
and kicked by them! This is the spirit of the Evil One! Oh, do not so!
Christian people, you dare not be so! You shall not be so–God will not
let you

be so–you must be gentle, compassionate, generous, kind, gracious!
Wherever you go, try to make others happy, for God creates Jerusalem as
a rejoicing and His people a joy–a joy to others who have no joy, a
source of happiness to the saddest of our race! Help the widow, comfort
the fatherless, succor the poor, cheer the desponding, tell the glad
news to the weary heart. In the Father's hands, in Christ's hands, in
the Spirit's hands, seek to break the prisoner's fetters and to bring
him out into the light of liberty! You, too, are anointed to proclaim
liberty to the captives. May the God of infinite mercy help you and
help me to do so!

Now, dear Friends, just for a minute upon this creation. I want to show
how the work of God does create a joy-making people. As soon as ever we
are converted, what is one of the first things that comes of it? Why,
joy! The morning I found Christ, it snowed very hard. The snowflakes
fluttered around me like white doves, as I went home, and I felt just
as light as those, for my soul was washed whiter than snow! It was not
a gloomy winter's day to me, but all Nature wore her bridal dress in
sympathy with my delight! Was it not so with you on the day of your new
birth? Were you not as happy as you could be when you first found the
Savior? So far, you see, the Lord creates joy–and it is better, still,
further on! When the creation of God goes on and a man is helped to
conquer sin–when the work of Grace in his soul grows and increases, he
cries, "Thanks be to God which gives us the victory"–and he gets
increased joy in his soul over every conquered sin.

When you and I see sin subdued, do we not feel happy? Whenever the news
comes to me that a man has been reclaimed from drunkenness, or a woman
is saved from the streets, or when I hear of a hard-hearted sinner
repenting, I rejoice in the Lord! Conversion days are our high
holidays! Revivals are our jubilees! Thus the Lord gives us
opportunities for joy and rejoicing as His new-creation work proceeds
stage by stage. Better days are in store, it may be, and I trust that
in years to come we shall more and more behold God working and shall
rejoice therein!

But, by-and-by, there will be a still greater joy! We shall enter into
Heaven and there will be joy among the angels and joy in our heart over
God's new-creation work which will proceed at a glorious rate! Then the
nations will be converted to God. I know not when, nor exactly how, but
the day shall come when Christ shall reign from pole to pole. And what
a joy that will be! We shall, indeed, be glad in that which God
creates, as the islands of the sea shall ring out His praise! Then
Christ the Lord will come and what joy and rejoicing there will be in
that day when He has fully fashioned the new earth and the new heavens!
His ancient people, the seed of Abraham, shall be gathered in with
exultation. We will clap our hands when the long-wandering nation shall
turn unto the true God and acknowledge the rejected Messiah of the
house of David!

The Gentiles will not be jealous. They will rejoice as the Jew comes in
and then will the Jews rejoice over the Gentiles, as they see them
worshipping Abraham's God! Everything that is to come in the eternal
future flashes the Light of God into the eyes of Believers and calls
upon them to rejoice in anticipation! Nothing prophesied should be
dreaded by us. There is nothing foretold by Seer, or beheld in vision,
that can alarm the Christian. He can stand serenely on the brink of the
great eternity and say, "Come on! Let every event foretold become a
fact! Pour out your vials, you angels! Fall, you star called Wormwood!
Come, Gog and Magog, to the last great battle of Armageddon!" Nothing
is to be dreaded! Nothing is to be feared by those who are one with
Jesus! To us remains nothing but joy and rejoicing, for God has made
His people a rejoicing–yes, His people a joy!

V. I finish up with the last point, IT IS A JOY IN WHICH WE SHARE WITH
GOD. Gently, my tongue! Timidly

and cautiously speak here! Here is your warrant for supposing a
fellowship with God and man in this joy–"Behold, I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and
joy in My people." The wonderful comes out here! God, Himself, the
Ever-Blessed, finds joy in His new creation! Here is ground for
marveling! I have often said to you that when the Lord made the
material world, there was not much in it to touch His spiritual Nature
and so He simply spoke and said, in plain prose, "It is good." That was
all–He said it was good. But when the Lord has made new heavens and
earth, when He has finished, when the bride of Christ shall be brought
to Him–you know the word, "He will rest in His love, He will joy over
her with singing."

Did you ever get into your hearts the idea of the Lord God singing? God
singing over His Church, over His Jerusalem, over His new creation! God
singing! I can understand the angels singing for joy over God's work,
but here is God singing over His own work! I will tell you something
more wonderful than that–it is that you should be a part of that work
and that God should sing over you! And yet it is not so very wonderful,
for is He not the Father, and does not the

Father sing over His prodigal son that wandered and is come back? Is He
not the Savior, and will not the Savior, who bought us with His blood,
sing over us who are the purchase of His agonies? He is the Spirit, and
shall not the Spirit, who has strived with us and worked all our works
in us, sing when His work is done and we are sanctified?

Father, when Your eternal purposes are all fulfilled, You will joy over
Your people! Son of God, Redeemer, when all Your agonies shall have
received their recompense in the salvation of Your redeemed, You will
rejoice over Your chosen! Holy Spirit, when all Your condescending
indwelling within us shall have accomplished its design, You will
rejoice in Your people! Come now, Beloved, rejoice in sympathy with the
Divine heart! When the father found his son, he made the whole
household merry, and shall not we be? When the woman had found her
piece of money, she called together her friends and neighbors and she
said, "Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."
Shall not we rejoice with the Spirit over the lost silver pieces? When
the shepherd brought home his sheep, he said, "Rejoice with me; for I
have found my sheep which was lost." Come, then, rejoice with the
Father, rejoice with the Son, rejoice with the Spirit! And if the Lord
God, as the Trinity in Unity, invites us to be glad and rejoice in that
which He creates, let us not hold back, but let us sing His matchless
love and new-creating power and infinite wisdom! I am sure you will
sing! You must sing even now, if you know yourselves to be a part of
this amazing Grace!

And now I close with this observation. Nobody will ever rejoice in this
new-creating work of God while he is rejoicing in his own works and
trusting in himself and boasting his own merits. It is a sign of Grace
when a man is sick of self and is in harmony with God. When he leaves
off rejoicing in what he can do and comes to rejoice in what God has
done and is doing, then a change has been worked in him! Some of you
are trying to save yourselves and make yourselves right before God–as
well might the dead try to find life for themselves. It cannot be done!
You must be made new by a power you have not within yourself–by a
Divine Power. You must be born again and this is the work of God–not
your work. We shall know when this heavenly work is begun in you when
you cease from rejoicing in anything that you are or can be of
yourselves, and then shall you, with us, rejoice in that which God
creates in you!

Ring the bells of Heaven! Tune your voices, sons of earth! He who makes
all things new is on the Throne, working out His holy pleasure.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen.

PORTIONS OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Romans 8:19-28; 2 Peter
3:3-13.