This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 17, 1993.

For our scripture reading this morning, we begin at Psalm 97. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgments are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. Confounded be all they that serve raven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship him, all ye gods.” Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all gods.

Ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” I’m turning over to Philippians chapter four, verses four and five. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

Our desire, Lord, is indeed such benefit as you have ordained. We know you will not disappoint us. So in worship, so also in life, and our prayer would not be self-centered so as to think that we alone are in need of such benefit as you give. So our hearts cry out on behalf of your people throughout the world that they may be blessed in the fellowship of your spirit as they gather together, worshiping you in spirit and in truth. And wonderfully blessed, Lord. as they pay attention to your word and receive from you life itself out of that word. Prosper, Father, the preaching of the gospel unto the gathering of your elect, that your name may be glorified here and forever.

Amen. their disgruntlement grew. It grew until it affected the relationship they had with everyone in the Church. There were those who were drawn by their unhappiness, who provided them with something of a sounding board as they expressed themselves, and there were others who were surprised, taken back by such an attitude, by such unhappiness, who felt increasingly distanced from that family that was disgruntled.

This family was not unhappy about the Church’s doctrine. They were Calvinist. They were Reformed. They had sought out a Reformed Church. They agreed with the Confession. They taught their children the Catechism. Their unhappiness developed because of the people in the church, and it arose out of a sort of self-interested, self-absorbed impatience. When they first joined the church, it was the small things, small things that proved to be annoyances, nuisances. They spoke about these things in casual conversations and even drew a few chuckles because of the foibles of certain people within the congregation.

But then there were the perceived slights, the insults, they feeling particularly sensitive, they had been overlooked or ignored. There had come those questionable comments, and they were sensitive people. Maybe better, they were thin-skinned. There were even those innocent comments that were made in love. with sincerity, with absolute sincerity and interest, that they took them as affronts when they were asked where they had been the last two Sundays. These then were the annoyances, the nuisances that dampened their zeal that overtook an original enthusiasm and even unbridled enthusiasm they had initially for the church. Good advice to any pastor is beware of those who are overly enthusiastic. These little wounds had become open sores. They had turned into grievances, grievances against the pastor. The pastor himself lacked sensitivity. Obviously a man who was in the wrong profession. He didn’t have real ministerial skill because he wasn’t adept at dealing with them. As a preacher, he was an obvious failure. He seemed to be one-dimensional.

He had no advice for them when it came to the practical matters of living the Christian life, which meant, of course, that he was inept at drawing out applications. applications which could be applied to others in the congregation with respect to their behavior and attitude towards this specific family. The elders, they were a detached lot, aloof, removed, uninterested in them. because they seemed unconcerned for them in ways they felt they should be concerned. And when it came to the congregation, here was a congregation that didn’t understand the meaning of true fellowship, because true fellowship places me in the center of things. And if the truth be told, these people really had little to offer. In actual fact, there really were, there really were no way, there really was no way in which these people could be a benefit to them.

It didn’t make any difference that the pastor labored overtime with this family, giving of himself to them. It made no difference that the elders went out of their way to be of service to this family. It made no difference that there were many in the congregation that made a special effort to befriend this family, even making a great deal of this family. making them important even. All of this was to no avail.

The disgruntlement and unhappiness grew and began enlisting others to the point that the pastor and many gracious and loving saints in that congregation were faced Sunday by Sunday with a number of stony stairs and joyless countenances. all of this contributing to an increasingly unbearable situation.

Now you might think that what I have just described is extraordinary, that it is the exception to the rule. Oh no, it isn’t. I have served as the pastor of two congregations in my ministerial life. I have been an intern in two others, and before that I was a member of three different congregations. In each of these seven churches there have been families, one time or another, such as I have just described.

Families plainly, overtly disgruntled and unhappy and communicating very well just how they feel about all things. These people are dissatisfied because of what might be described as a self-interested, self-absorbed, joyless impatience. But neither are we speaking here about a modern problem as if the circumstances in our modern world conspire to produce anomalies like this. We are dealing with a problem that has plagued the Church in every age.

In fact, this very problem seems to be at the center of matters when Paul addresses the Church at Philippi. Do you ask yourself the question as to why this particular letter by Paul is flooded with the language about joy? What, at Philippi, made that necessary? Fourteen times in this letter, Paul uses the word joy, or one of its cognates.

Philippians 4.4 is indeed one of the most famous texts in this regard, and is specifically to the point. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Now, we have already looked at this text in a former message. We have already looked at this text in order to understand the character of the joy spoken of here by Paul.

This joy is such that it does not deny misery and sorrow in this world, It is not as if the apostle in his thought is prototype for Mary Baker Eddy and her religion of Christian science. No, the joy of which Paul speaks and to which he calls those Philippians and to which he calls us does not deny the harsh realities of life in this world. Instead, such joy as he sets before these people is expressing itself resolutely in the midst of misery and sorrow and the difficulties of life in this world. That’s the character of the joy of which the Apostle speaks.

But now we want to turn our attention to the context for that joy more specifically, and then the content of this joy. The context for this joy is of greatest importance. It is quite specific and leads naturally into a consideration of the content. This joy contended for by Paul rises to the occasion specifically within the context of conflict.

Remember the second verse of that fourth chapter, where the conflict at Philippi is specifically mentioned. Two members of that congregation are at each other’s throats. You will recall that the conflict between them was not doctrinal, any more than the issue was doctrinal for this disgruntled family that we spoke of earlier. Instead, we are dealing with a personality conflict.

Whether it be Eurodia and Syndiche or the disgruntled family that we have described, these people have no joy because they are self-absorbed and impatient with everybody’s inability to meet their needs and make them happy. It’s almost as if they see the Church existing as an organization for the specific purpose of meeting their needs and making them happy. As if their mental and emotional well-being were the most important things in the entire history of the world and the expanse of the cosmos. And when the Church fails to live up to this sort of standard, a very wicked standard I might add, they then stomp off in a huff. Do you understand that for which the Apostle pleads? You understand what it is that the Apostle is setting before these people.

The joy of which he speaks is not selfish. It is not self-absorbed. It is not self-obsessed. It is not inward-looking. It does not concentrate on its own need for happiness. but instead it finds its delight, its exhilaration, its fullness and satisfaction in the joy of others and in their happiness. Oh, to make someone else happy. Oh, to be the reason why someone else rejoices. It is not without reason, then, that the Apostle continues as he does in verse 5. It doesn’t come across very well in the King James. Let your moderation be known to all men. You don’t quite grasp the seventeenth-century lingo at that point. A better translation is this. Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. Did you catch it? Did you catch the force of it? Did you move from Paul’s imperative to rejoice to this second imperative in verse five? Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men.

Indeed, in you is your gentleness, your patient kindness, which are evidence of the very joy and rejoicing that the Apostle has just mentioned. not concern for oneself primarily, but concern for someone else, expressed in your gentleness towards others and in your forbearing spirit. And that’s the case with Euodia and Syntyche presently at Philippi. What would we likely hear them saying as their defense for their stony faces and their fallen countenances?

I have no reason to rejoice. I am a victim, don’t you understand? I have been unjustly treated. I have been hardly getting what is my due. I have not been receiving the recognition and attention which I deserve. Oh, I’ll rejoice. I’ll rejoice when these people give me cause to rejoice, and I am granted my rightful honor and respect within this assembly.

He calls upon us to rejoice with a joy coupled to action in which our gentleness and forbearing spirit are clearly seen. But it is not as if we had no well from which to draw. It’s not as if in this whole matter we are thrown back upon our own strength. After all, as the apostle says, this is rejoicing in the Lord. Not before the Lord, not because of the Lord, but in the Lord.

Spoken of here is a rejoicing possible because of the Lord and because of what is found in The Lord Jesus Christ is in view, the one who finds his joy in his Father’s will, the one who finds his joy made full in the happiness of those whom he loves. the one whose joy finds expression not insisting upon his own rights or upon placing himself first and above all. Rather, his gentleness and forbearance mark his joy in service to you. As He said, for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many.

This very One, then, the Lord Jesus Christ, is He in whom we rejoice. The Lord in whom we rejoice. And note this about him. He always rejoices. You see the antecedent, then, of what the apostle speaks of. The Lord himself always rejoices, and therefore we who are united to him by faith, we who are in him, must not do anything less.

Here is the constraint upon you. If, in fact, you are claiming union with your Savior, if you are saying you are united to him by faith, the one to whom you are united rejoices always. And you must do the same. This is no place for selfishness. That determination not to rejoice because you are unhappy. As the fifth verse ends, you have set before you this sobering thought as well.

The Lord is at hand. It is well to keep in mind, then, that this Lord in whom we are called to rejoice, in whom we find by grace our own joyful gentleness and forbearance at work, is the Lord who is immediately at the door. He is at hand, and he comes to judge us for our joylessness and for our brutal selfishness. if in fact we persist in such attitudes of God. It is no innocent thing for a small matter this selfishness and this selfish unhappiness. Much better much better that we heed the apostle and rejoice in the Lord always. And rejoice in the Lord always.

Let us pray. O Father, save us from the threat of selfish unhappiness. the kind of unhappiness that would set us at the center of things and demand that all things revolve around us. Lord, bring such attitudes of mind and soul to an end, if in fact we discern such a spirit in ourselves, and that through the workings of your spirit in us, the very spirit of the one whom you’ve raised from the dead, to rejoice in your presence forever. The Lord Jesus Christ, may his joy be ours, and may the joy you give us be well communicated to those around us, as we would sacrifice ourselves even as he sacrificed himself that others may be made joyful. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.