My Best Life Now?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:00:07.960 | Today's question comes to us from Rasmus,

00:00:10.440 | a listener from Denmark.

00:00:12.240 | Hello, Pastor John, I love the truth

00:00:14.120 | that the fullest joy possible is to be found in God,

00:00:17.640 | but there's one angle to it

00:00:18.880 | that I don't quite understand yet.

00:00:21.620 | My question is, when is this true?

00:00:25.040 | If I choose not to deny myself and follow Jesus,

00:00:28.060 | would I have more joy in this life?

00:00:31.560 | Or in other words, can we say that the Christian life

00:00:34.000 | is the most joyful life here and now?

00:00:36.760 | Or do we as Christians deny ourselves

00:00:39.360 | the greatest possible joy in this life

00:00:42.840 | for greater joy in the life to come?

00:00:45.200 | There are verses pointing in this direction,

00:00:47.440 | such as 1 Corinthians 15, 19,

00:00:49.880 | if in Christ we have hope in this life only,

00:00:52.880 | we are of all people most to be pitied.

00:00:55.360 | But there are also verses talking about the joy of God,

00:00:57.960 | being greater than the riches on earth,

00:01:00.960 | such as Psalm 4, verse 7.

00:01:03.520 | You have put more joy in my heart

00:01:05.320 | than they have when their grain and wine abound.

00:01:09.320 | Pastor John, what would you say?

00:01:11.280 | - There are two things that we need to grasp

00:01:15.160 | about Christian joy in this fallen world

00:01:17.640 | that I think are going to help resolve

00:01:20.160 | his paradox that he sees.

00:01:23.200 | First, Paul calls our joy in Galatians 5.22,

00:01:28.200 | the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

00:01:31.120 | Fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy.

00:01:34.360 | Christian joy is qualitatively different

00:01:38.240 | from the joy and happiness of the world.

00:01:41.920 | The joy of the Christian is rooted in our spiritual taste

00:01:46.920 | and spiritual sight, worked by the Holy Spirit,

00:01:51.680 | of the all-satisfying beauty of God in Christ,

00:01:55.200 | especially in the great work of the gospel.

00:01:58.240 | And you can see that in 2 Corinthians 3.18

00:02:02.040 | and chapter 4, verse 4 and 4, verse 6,

00:02:04.900 | where Paul says that we behold the glory of the Lord.

00:02:09.240 | And he says that the Lord shines into our heart

00:02:12.360 | to give the light of the gospel, of the glory,

00:02:15.980 | the good news of the glory of Christ.

00:02:18.560 | So that's what we see spiritually.

00:02:21.320 | By the work of the Spirit,

00:02:23.160 | this is the deepest root of our joy as a Christian.

00:02:28.120 | God frees us from being blinded by the glitzy,

00:02:32.400 | fleeting, deceptive pleasures of this world.

00:02:36.680 | He frees us from being deceived into thinking

00:02:40.620 | that the God-ignoring, cotton candy pleasures

00:02:44.480 | of the body and the mind are the most satisfying food

00:02:48.240 | of the human soul.

00:02:49.320 | They're not.

00:02:50.600 | God gives us eyes, Ephesians 1.17,

00:02:53.880 | God gives us eyes, the enlightening of the eyes of our heart

00:02:58.880 | to see what is really substantial and rich and deep

00:03:03.760 | and beautiful and satisfying and eternal,

00:03:06.900 | namely the beauty and worth of all that God is for us

00:03:11.900 | in Christ.

00:03:13.360 | So in the new birth, the Holy Spirit gives us new taste buds

00:03:18.860 | on the tongue of our soul so that 1 Peter 2 says,

00:03:23.860 | we taste the goodness of the Lord.

00:03:28.660 | We taste the sweetness of forgiveness of sins.

00:03:33.140 | We taste the removal of our guilt.

00:03:35.660 | We taste the removal of God's wrath and our condemnation,

00:03:40.280 | the precious experience of being loved by God

00:03:44.620 | and God being for us and not against us.

00:03:46.740 | We taste the friendship of the Lord

00:03:49.740 | and we feel a hundred spiritual pleasures day after day

00:03:54.740 | as God's promises, His sweet promises satisfy our days,

00:04:00.580 | promises to help us and protect us and comfort us

00:04:05.500 | and keep us until we're finally home.

00:04:09.540 | The world doesn't know anything of that.

00:04:12.580 | They don't, they don't know anything.

00:04:13.920 | All of that is a miracle.

00:04:16.060 | All of that is made spiritually tasted

00:04:19.820 | by the work of the Spirit in our hearts.

00:04:23.860 | So the joy of the Christian is qualitatively unique

00:04:28.860 | and distinct from the joy and pleasures

00:04:31.700 | and happiness of the world,

00:04:33.420 | none of which are based on any spiritual sight

00:04:38.180 | or taste of God's glory.

00:04:40.700 | The joys of the world do not have God at the bottom

00:04:45.460 | and therefore they're not able to satisfy the human soul.

00:04:50.040 | They're not able to last beyond this world

00:04:52.780 | and therefore they are going to be profoundly disappointing.

00:04:56.760 | But Christian joy has God at the bottom

00:05:00.420 | and therefore is utterly unique and cannot be shaken,

00:05:04.640 | can't be taken away at death and is utterly satisfying.

00:05:08.800 | Like Jesus said in John 6:35,

00:05:11.540 | "Whoever comes to me will not hunger.

00:05:16.100 | Whoever believes me will never thirst."

00:05:19.380 | Our hearts were made for God.

00:05:23.340 | God created us to find our deepest, longest, eternal joy

00:05:28.340 | in knowing and treasuring Him.

00:05:32.740 | And therefore Christian joy is better

00:05:36.140 | than the joy of the world.

00:05:37.860 | And I think that's what is meant by Psalm 4:7.

00:05:42.300 | You have put more joy in my heart than they have

00:05:48.100 | when their grain and wine abound.

00:05:51.220 | More in the sense of something better and deeper and longer.

00:05:55.700 | And Psalm 16, 11 says it's in God's presence

00:05:59.980 | is this fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore.

00:06:02.900 | This is a pleasure that the world has never tasted.

00:06:07.900 | So it's not a matter of quantitative comparison.

00:06:11.420 | It's a matter of qualitative,

00:06:13.060 | infinite qualitative difference.

00:06:14.740 | This is supernatural.

00:06:16.420 | This is given by the Holy Spirit.

00:06:18.520 | It's a fruit of the Spirit in our lives,

00:06:20.500 | enabling us to taste and see the beauty

00:06:23.500 | and worth of the Son of God.

00:06:25.500 | We have seen His glory.

00:06:27.900 | Glory as of the only Son from the Father,

00:06:31.500 | full of grace and truth.

00:06:32.940 | So that's the first thing that we need to grasp

00:06:36.100 | about Christian joy.

00:06:37.100 | It is a fruit of the Spirit

00:06:40.180 | and therefore it is qualitatively different

00:06:43.940 | from the joy of those who do not know God,

00:06:47.540 | don't believe the gospel, don't have the Holy Spirit.

00:06:50.300 | Now here's the second thing we need to grasp

00:06:52.700 | about Christian joy.

00:06:54.500 | And that is it regularly brings with it

00:06:59.740 | affliction and trouble and sorrow, more sorrow

00:07:04.740 | than we would have had in this life

00:07:08.380 | if we had chosen not to follow Jesus.

00:07:12.340 | So Paul says in Acts 14.22,

00:07:15.340 | "Through many tribulations,

00:07:17.180 | we must enter the kingdom of God."

00:07:19.940 | He doesn't say that about unbelievers.

00:07:21.980 | He says that about believers.

00:07:24.260 | And you can avoid these.

00:07:25.520 | You can avoid these afflictions by avoiding the kingdom.

00:07:29.580 | So Jesus does not promise His followers

00:07:33.740 | that life gets easier in this world.

00:07:37.260 | In fact, He defines discipleship

00:07:40.860 | as taking up a cross and denying ourselves.

00:07:45.780 | This means that there are many kinds of earthly pleasures

00:07:50.780 | that Christians will forego by choice

00:07:55.500 | and many sorrows that will come to us,

00:07:58.980 | some by choice, but many not by choice.

00:08:03.340 | And the reason for that is this.

00:08:05.980 | Christians are called to love our neighbors

00:08:08.740 | as we love ourselves.

00:08:11.100 | And this inevitably means a life of sorrow

00:08:15.380 | because we care far more as Christians

00:08:20.060 | for the outcome of other people's lives

00:08:22.860 | than we would have if we were not Christians.

00:08:26.100 | 'Cause that's what Jesus had to do.

00:08:27.580 | He said, "Love them as you love yourself."

00:08:29.740 | And when we see these lives ruined by sin,

00:08:34.180 | some close to us, some not so close to us,

00:08:36.740 | it touches us more deeply than it would

00:08:40.620 | if we had chosen not to follow Christ.

00:08:44.180 | Therefore, Christians will inevitably have more sorrow

00:08:48.980 | than if we had not followed Christ.

00:08:51.800 | Now, those are the two things we need to see.

00:08:54.620 | And now let's put those together

00:08:58.060 | and ask about these two texts that Rasmus has asked about.

00:09:02.580 | 1 Corinthians 15, 19 says,

00:09:04.700 | "If in Christ we have hope in this life only,

00:09:08.780 | we are of all people most to be pitied."

00:09:11.140 | Now, why would that be true?

00:09:13.540 | Well, it will be true because if Christ is not raised,

00:09:19.800 | then the first fact that I mentioned about Christian joy,

00:09:22.540 | namely that it is qualitatively distinct and better,

00:09:27.420 | it's just false.

00:09:28.580 | I mean, we've lived a life of utter delusion as Christians

00:09:33.580 | if Christ is not raised from the dead.

00:09:36.220 | The whole message of the New Testament collapses,

00:09:39.140 | including all of its teachings about joy,

00:09:41.660 | all of its teachings about the Holy Spirit.

00:09:43.500 | It's all bogus and everything I just said

00:09:46.260 | was chatter, chatter, chatter.

00:09:47.420 | It doesn't mean anything.

00:09:48.580 | It's just lips flapping in the wind

00:09:51.940 | if Christ is not raised from the dead.

00:09:53.840 | We've based our life on a fraud.

00:09:57.380 | And second, if Christ is not raised from the dead,

00:10:01.140 | then we Christians have taken on ourselves

00:10:04.540 | a lot of sorrow and affliction

00:10:07.220 | that we could have avoided if we had just avoided Christ.

00:10:12.220 | So 1 Corinthians 15, 19 is true.

00:10:16.080 | If in Christ we have hoped only in this life,

00:10:19.980 | in other words, if there's no future life,

00:10:21.580 | if Christ isn't raised from the dead,

00:10:23.060 | if the whole thing is a sham,

00:10:24.780 | then we are of all people most to be pitied.

00:10:29.260 | But Christ has been raised from the dead.

00:10:33.360 | The gospel is true.

00:10:34.840 | The Holy Spirit has been poured out.

00:10:36.780 | Our eyes have been opened to see the truth

00:10:39.260 | and worth and beauty of Christ in the gospel.

00:10:42.980 | All the joy that we know as Christians

00:10:45.620 | is supernatural and distinct from the joy of the world

00:10:49.660 | because it's the fruit of the Holy Spirit

00:10:52.620 | and has the glory of God at the bottom of it all.

00:10:55.220 | And the sorrows that we take on

00:10:58.940 | because we are Christians are indeed more sorrows

00:11:02.700 | than the world embraces, but they are temporary.

00:11:06.380 | And with Christ's help, the yoke is easy

00:11:09.700 | and the burden is light.

00:11:11.740 | These sorrows will pass away at the end of our lives here.

00:11:17.940 | Our joy will be perfected and it will be plain

00:11:21.940 | that our joy was better and deeper and longer

00:11:26.940 | than the joys of unbelievers.

00:11:30.160 | - Really good primer on the precious value

00:11:33.660 | of Christian joy here.

00:11:34.840 | Pastor John, thank you.

00:11:36.540 | And not to mention an assault

00:11:38.260 | on the prosperity teaching as well.

00:11:40.500 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:41.340 | Thank you, Erasmus, for the question.

00:11:42.620 | We published this podcast three times a week

00:11:45.140 | and you can subscribe to our audio feeds

00:11:46.660 | and search our episode archive.

00:11:47.860 | You can reach us by email

00:11:49.060 | with the difficulty you may be facing in life.

00:11:51.140 | You can do all that through our online home

00:11:53.300 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:58.260 | Wednesday, we return to hear from a single mother

00:12:02.340 | and she thinks she has the gift of singleness.

00:12:05.700 | Are single parents obligated to marry?

00:12:09.000 | That is an interesting question and that is on Wednesday.

00:12:12.820 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:12:14.140 | We'll see you then.

00:12:15.060 | (upbeat music)

00:12:17.640 | (upbeat music)

00:12:20.220 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

My Best Life Now?

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