Christ Is in the Midst

Well, it's November, and we'll soon be entering into a season when each of us will be called upon to rejoice in God. If people want to bring up Jesus Christ, we, as Christians, ought to rejoice in it even though the world may not understand. I say, if people want to bring up the thought of God and the thought of Jesus Christ, may it cause us to rejoice in Him in a great way. I believe that we ought to be rejoicing; we have more to rejoice in than any other people I know.

The Scripture text said that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. He was near the descent of the mount of Olives, coming into Jerusalem, and the disciples began to burst forth with great praises, making great noise praising God.

You might say, "There praise was false; they were actually thinking Christ was going to take the throne of David and set up the long-expected kingdom." Well, that's partly it, but if we will look at all four verses of our Scripture text, we will see that they were rejoicing because Jesus was in the midst. When did the rejoicing start?---when they saw Him coming down the mount. He hadn't even gotten to the city limits when they began rejoicing. The real sound basis of their rejoicing was that Jesus was in the midst.

Now we'll take a long jump up to the very day and time in which we live. There certainly ought to be a whole lot more rejoicing than there is today. Christ is in the midst of the true people of God. We're not looking at Him coming down the mountain and going into a literal city; He's in the midst and we have understanding to know that the Kingdom is securely His. This is something in which only the true people of God can rejoice.

Others are looking for a literal kingdom to come; they are still hung up on that false thought and false spirit of a literal kingdom being established in the future somewhere in Jerusalem. If we've ever listened to a man preach on the millennium, we'd find that he does some rejoicing. Well, how much more should we rejoice knowing that the Kingdom is already secured and that the King is already on His throne. While others dream of an age to come, while others rejoice over something that they believe is yet in the future, He is reigning in our hearts today, He is King of kings and Lord of lords right now!

If we're not careful, we can get so used to these well-established truths that we'll fail to be thankful for them. God is so good to us; God is so overwhelmingly good to us! He not only supplies our needs, but He goes beyond that and blesses us. He prepares a table before us every time we meet together at the house of God. No one ever has to go away empty.

Let Christ Ride Prosperously

God is faithful to us, but if we're not careful, we'll become like spoiled children: so much comes our way that we see no reason to rejoice. It ought to bless our soul if, in the midst of all the confusion and millennial teachings of every kind, we can understand in our own heart that the Kingdom is already secured.

Jesus is now sitting on the only throne He will ever sit on. When He leaves that throne one of these days, He will go to a throne of judgment. He will never sit on a kingdom throne again. After the Judgment, the Kingdom will be delivered up to the Father, and God will be all in all, and all will be subject to God, even Jesus Christ.

We don't rejoice enough over these things. People that just get hold of truth put many of us to shame. Too many take these precious truth as something that's coming to them. Not only is Jesus Christ already on the throne, but every one of us is a royal subject, too, because He has lifted us and made us kings. Every subject in His Kingdom is a king and has been lifted to a royal place and is able to reign on the earth right now, thank God. I say, praise God for it!

I don't know if you can, but I can envision the glittering crown on His head. Somebody may say, "He was actually coming into Jerusalem." Well, He has been riding in our streets too. Oh, yes, He has been saving the lost, healing the sick, healing the brokenhearted, lifting up and strengthening the weak. He has blessed us day after day. How are we blessed?--- Jesus is riding in our midst.

In the forty-fifth Psalm, the Psalmist was telling King Jesus to "ride prosperously." How can we let Him ride prosperously? By letting Him have His will; letting Him do everything He wants to do in our heart and life. Oh, how His work would prosper in a much greater way if people would just take the brakes off and let Him do what he really wants to do.

The praise of those disciples was delightful praise, and, in addition to that, they were quick to praise Him. They began praising Him before He ever got there; they broke out in so much praise that the hypocrites got mad. How much more praise should we be giving Him when He is in our hearts and in our midst? It's good to have a quick eye to perceive occasions of gratitude. May God help us!

Songs of Mercy

One of the things that John wrote about in the book of Revelation was concerning those who have eyes to see but they are spiritually blind. One thing we need is to have our eyes anointed afresh to be able to perceive God's goodness in a greater way and to be able to see and perceive the hand of God moving our way in a greater way.

We've lost much as the church for not being thankful for the little things, the little mercies. Today it takes too much to move people to the place of really praising God. One of the minor prophets let us know that we should not despise (or neglect) the day of small things. One of the first ways in which to tell when ingratitude and unbelief are moving in upon us is when we can't really see the little things, the small things, and because we neglect to praise God for the small things and the little mercies, many times these little mercies have been removed. They're not here in as strong a way as they could have been.

If we would sing of mercy, even the little mercies, we would have more. It's still God's way of giving us more when we praise Him for what he has done. Prayer not only changes things, but praise also changes things.

There are places today where they have failed to praise God even for the little things. Congregations have become barren and deserted. In too many places there's no such thing as a praise service. You may go there a long time before you hear anybody raise to their feet and praise God for something He has done in their individual life. How did it come about?---just passing up God's goodness and the little things until the favors of God fall in unthankfulness; and a lack of holiness always follows unthankfulness.

Christ Is Worthy of Praise

We need to praise God. May we lift up the voice of praise to the Master for the blessings that He has bestowed upon us. God has been so good to us. We have seen bodies healed, souls saved, and the altars have not been barren.

Not only were the disciples quick to praise Him, but it was unanimous praise. Look at verse 37, "And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice..." The whole multitude praised Him; there wasn't a silent tongue among the whole group. Somebody may say, "Well, when the crowd gets too big, nobody wants to praise God."

This thing that we just read about was big; there were thousands of people there. There was not one disciple who didn't praise God, and there are no true disciples yet today who don't praise God; that's a part of discipleship. May God deliver people from this thing of saying, "I have a different temperament than other people; it's hard for me to speak."

One of the reasons the world doesn't realize what we have, is because we're not excited about it, not one bit. People get more excited and put forth more effort selling some product they are interested in, than in Jesus Christ. I watch, and I learn by watching. You may say, "I'm kind of a quiet disciple." There's not a quiet disciple when Jesus comes in the midst.

The Bible says that they made a LOUD noise. I don't know how beautiful it was, but there was a loud noise that came forth from hearts that were thankful to have Jesus come into the city and into their lives. Someone might say, "Well, things are different now." Oh, no, we need to study the Bible.

Those people had trials just like we do. No doubt, there were some in the crowd who were losing their jobs, some may have said that they could hardly make it, some of their families were sick, and they had lots of other problems; but, when Jesus came down the hill into the city, they rejoiced with praise and adoration unto Him because He is worthy of all praise! They had to make a living just as men do today, but they still had praise for God. The Bible lets us know that they ALL praised Him.

No matter how heavy the load may be in our life, we can still rejoice as they rejoiced. They weren't rejoicing because everything was going well; they were rejoicing because Jesus was glorified in the midst. When we look at it like this, we can always rejoice. Personal problems may be great or small, but when we start rejoicing in the fact that Christ is glorified in our hearts and lives and in our midst, we all can rejoice.

Have an Old-Fashioned Housecleaning

In Luke, Chapter 15, Jesus set forth a parable about the woman who had the ten pieces of silver and lost one, so she swept and garnished the house until she found it. When she found it, she was so happy that she called her friends and neighbors and asked them to rejoice with her.

What would happen if we would find what we have lost? How do we find what we've lost?---sweep and garnish the house; have an old-fashioned housecleaning where we move everything. Let's not take anything for granted. It's too easy to say, "There's not any dirt under that. It's all right." Why don't we move it and see? Move everything and not only sweep but garnish the house. Don't let the enemy come around and say, "You don't have to worry, there isn't any dirt there."

I've seen a lot of people who thought they didn't have any dirt, and all I had to do was preach real close and move them a little, and , there was plenty of dirt that came up. Everything wasn't all clean like they thought it was.

There's not any doubt in my mind but what many people are so sick of religion that if you would go over and say, "We have a special preacher in and I want you to hear him preach," or "We have a good quartet. My, they can sing! Will you come and hear them?" and they would give you dozen excuses; but what are they going to do when you go over and say, "My soul is so full it's running over. I can't praise God enough! Will you come to church tonight and help me rejoice?"

God has a bigger shovel than we have; the more we try to shovel praise to Him, He just picks up a scoop about three times that size and dumps out a lot more blessings. Over and over, in the book of Psalms, the prophets kept saying, "Let mount Zion rejoice!" The devil doesn't want us to rejoice, and hypocrites don't want us to rejoice.

In some places, if we allow a good, healthy amen to come out of our mouth or if we shout in the aisle, they'll give us a look that will make us crawl back in our chair. We shouldn't let them do that; Let mount Zion rejoice! Oh, how much we have to rejoice over.

A True Disciple's Heart

I want us to note that the Scripture said, "The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice." The hypocrites and Pharisees were divided from the disciples. They didn't rejoice, and they got mad because the disciples rejoiced. Those old hypocrites raised up and wanted them to stop that noise, but Jesus let them know that there was going to be noise: he said that if the disciples hushed, the rocks would start crying out.

It was just the multitude of the disciples who rejoiced. They began to rejoice with a loud voice, "Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples" (verses 38-39). Isn't that something! You can always mark a Pharisee: he holds a rebuke on the praise, and he holds a rebuke on the freedom that the disciples have in praising God. I'm going to say right now, we're wasting our breath and our prayers, too, trying to get Jesus to rebuke something he's liking.

The Pharisees didn't praise Him: they were hypocrites. They were busy murmuring and complaining. It's just as natural for murmuring and complaining to come out of a Pharisee's heart as it is for real rejoicing to come out of a true disciple's heart. Right in the midst of all the rejoicing, there were some people who were not happy. Mark it down, true praises only come forth from true hearts.

The word DISCIPLE means "learner." When we're a disciple, we're a follower of Christ, or in other words, a learner of Christ. Christ learned obedience, and then after He learned it, He became a great teacher to teach us. We have to learn obedience. Get it fixed plainly, if we don't learn obedience, we're not a part of the church here on the earth and we will never see the inside of Heaven.

We're in a day and time when obedience has been thrown out the window. Too many people have the Word preached to them, but they'll do just about what they want to about it. Well, mark it down, we're never going to make it without obedience. Christ had to learn obedience through the things He suffered, and we will have to learn obedience. We don't get it in a moment of time at an altar; newborn babes in Christ need to learn this. We learn obedience through the faithfulness of God. Christ is the Master, He is the Rabbi, and we are the disciples, the learners. We learn everything from Him because wisdom and the real treasures, the rich things of life, are all hidden in Him and, He reveals them to us. We not only learn obedience, but from Him alone, we learn the real song of praise, the only acceptable song.

A New Song

In Revelation 14:1-3 John said: "And I looked, and , lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps [Here's rejoicing.]: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth."

The one hundred and forty and four thousand is nothing more than a symbolic number. He said there were twelve thousand sealed out of the twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve times twelve thousand is one hundred and forty-four thousand. The point I want to get to us is that he is dealing with the completeness of the church. The church came out of the Dark Ages just as complete as she was when she went into it.

In the morning time, the church had harpers harping, and they sang a new song that no man could learn. What does the Scripture mean when it says that "no man could learn that song?" It's not learned by human intelligence: we may know how to read notes and sing like a bird, but we can't learn this song or sing it. It only comes by experience; it's a song of experience within our heart.

What was that new song? Revelation 5:8-10 tells us: "And when he had taken the book [Here's a picture in the Revelation of Christ taking the book.], the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials...which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth."

In Psalm 40:1-3 we read: "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit [This so-called salvation that's being advocated today where all the sinners (They say that you are forgiven but you're left in sin.) is not Bible.], out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a [solid] rock, and established my going. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God..."

We can't short God on any one of these things. If we're really lifted out, and standing on the rock, and God is establishing our goings (we're living for God and getting along), then right with it is a song of praise on our lips, even praise unto God. This is why the Revelation said that every one of them has vials which are the prayers of the saints. Every one of them has harps and the praise is flowing out of their hearts to God. Rejoicing and praise belongs to every one of us.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Praise Him for the Mighty Works

The praise of those disciples found in our Scripture text wasn't just noise; it was very reasonable praise. Why were they praising Him? Luke 19:37 says, "...the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen [Not the mighty works He was doing right there at that moment, but the mighty works they had seen in the past.]"

Have we ever seen any mighty works? We have more to be rejoicing about, than any other people because of the mighty works we've seen God do in the past. I know partly what they had seen according to what is recorded in the Word, but I know better what I've seen in the last thirty-eight years. What did they rejoice in?---the things they had seen.

I've seen blind eyes restored. My wife was blind in one eye because it had a growth over it, and the doctor wanted to operate, but he couldn't assure me then that she would be able to see. We held right on to God, and on a Wednesday morning when I was preaching a revival, she came running to me and said, "I can see out of this eye with a hand over the other one." I looked and the growth was gone. I took her back to the doctor, and he said, "Something definitely has happened here: the growth is gone."

A Christian brother suffered with an eye disease that could have left him blind very easily, but God moved on him and healed him. I'm talking about rejoicing in things that we have seen. The devil wants to put a damper on our praise, and when he gets the damper on our praise for what we've seen, we'll not see those things in the future, because when he dampers our praise, he dampers our faith.

I've seen most every kind of incurable disease healed. I've seen deaf ears unstopped. I recall when a brother first came among us; he couldn't hear. They had to put an alarm clock on a dish-pan so he could hear it, and that wouldn't work. He was not among us very long until one morning he heard the alarm clock in another room.

I've seen homosexual spirits taken out of people, causing them to live normal lives as God has ordained. Over and over, I've seen those possessed with devils delivered.

Four or five years after my daddy died, after a service we dealt with a woman who was devil possessed. We let everybody leave with the exception of six or eight people because we felt that there would be too many who wouldn't believe. The woman scooted her nose across the carpet until she had her nose bleeding where she had rubbed the skin off, and she grunted like an animal. Finally, after working and praying with her a couple of hours, she was delivered.

After we had finished working with that woman, someone hollered and said, there's a bat here." So I went right up around there after it. Every time I stepped on that bat to kill it, it would let out the same noise that woman had made. God said that he had to have somewhere to put that devil. I even had a terrible time killing that bat.

Some people just play around and do everything the devil wants them to do, showing every attitude the devil wants them to show, but little by little, he is possessing their lives. Some day they will wake up and want to turn to God, and they'll find that they can't because they're bound.

I remember the day when we laid hands on a sister, and God witnessed to me that he had healed her of cancer; He let her live well for three or four years. Another sister had scleroderma; they went to every specialist they could find, and they offered no hope for her whatsoever, but God healed her. A sister from North Carolina also had the same disease and was healed.

A brother and sister's little baby girl was so sick, and they had to put a device in her heart so they could get blood to her quickly. Now they've taken the device out because she doesn't need it any more; she's making her own blood.

The devil doesn't want us to think about these things. I'm rejoicing in things that I've seen. I've seen men and women delivered from sin, deep sin, and made new creatures; the power of God made them new.

Another brother and sister's little baby was born in such a pitiful condition. She had a hole in her heart and a lot of other things were wrong. They had to operate faith against the dark statement that the doctor had made. He said, "Well, she may live, but she'll never be right. She'll never be able to talk, think, or walk." Now, she's doing all of those things, and the hole in her heart has disappeared.

Lift Up the Voice of Praise

In LUke 19:38, they rejoiced in the things which they had seen, "Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." They rejoice in the King that was coming in the name of the Lord, and we rejoice in the King that HAS come in the name of the Lord. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. May we crown Him Lord of all.

Let's sactify the Lord God in our heart and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks us of the hope that lies within us. Let's crown Him Lord of our life and really turn everything over to Him; If we turn it over to Him, He will take care of us. The psalmist said, "llllet the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises unto His name..."(Psalm 68:3-4).

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