"Wherein Ye Greatly Rejoice."
"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness." And can a Christian "greatly rejoice" while he is "in heaviness?" Yes, most assuredly he can. Mariners tell us that there are some parts of the sea where there is a strong current upon the surface going one way, while, down in the depths there is a strong current running the other way. Two seas also do not meet and interfere with one another, but one stream of water on the surface is running in one direction, and another below in an opposite direction. Now, the Christian is like that. On the surface there is a stream of heaviness rolling in dark waves, but down in the depths there is a strong under-current of great rejoicing which is always flowing there. Do you ask what is the cause of this great rejoicing? The apostle tells us, "Wherein ye greatly rejoice." What does he mean? Refer to his epistle, and you will see. He is writing "to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, etc." And the first thing which He says to them is, that they are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God." This is an assurance "wherein ye greatly rejoice." Ah! even when the Christian is most "in heaviness through manifold temptations," what a mercy it is that he can know that he is still elect of God! Any man who is assured that God "has chosen him from before the foundation of the world," may well say, "Wherein I greatly rejoice." Let us reflect on this. Before God made the heavens and the earth, or laid the pillars of the firmament in their golden sockets, He set His love upon me; upon the breast of the great High Priest He wrote my name; and in His everlasting book it stands, never to be erased—"elect according to the foreknowledge of God." Why, this may make a man's soul leap within him, and all the heaviness which the infirmities of the flesh may lay upon him shall be but as nothing; for this tremendous current of His overflowing joy shall sweep away the mill-dam of his grief. Bursting and overleaping every obstacle, it shall overflood all his sorrows till they are drowned and covered up, and shall not be mentioned any more forever. "Wherein ye greatly rejoice." Come, Christian! thou art depressed and cast down. Think for a moment: thou art chosen of God and precious. Let the bell of election ring in thine ear—that ancient Sabbath-bell of the covenant; and let thy name be heard in its notes, and say, I beseech thee, say, doth not this make thee "greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, thou art in heaviness through manifold temptations?"
Again, you will see another reason. The apostle says that we are "elect through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ"—"wherein we greatly rejoice." Is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ girt about my loins, to be my beauty and my glorious dress? and is the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon me, to take away all my guilt and all my sin? and shall I not in this greatly rejoice? What shall there be in all the depressions of spirit which can possibly come upon me which shall make me break my harp, even though I should for a moment hang it upon the willows? Do I not expect that yet again my songs shall mount to heaven; and even now, through the thick darkness, do not the sparks of my joy appear, when I remember that I have still upon me the blood of Jesus, and still about me the glorious righteousness of the Messiah?
But the great and cheering comfort of the apostle is, that we are elect unto "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us," even as we are reserved for it. Well may this indeed make him greatly rejoice. He is drawing near the gates of death, and his spirit is in heaviness, for he has to leave behind him all that life holds dear. Besides, sickness brings upon him naturally a depression of spirits. But you sit by him in his chamber, and you begin to talk to him of the
"Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,
Arrayed in living green."
You tell him of Canaan on the other side the Jordan—of the land which floweth with milk and honey—of the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and of all the glories which God hath prepared for them who love Him; and you see his dull eye light up with seraphic brightness, "his heaviness" is all gone, and the language of his heart is—
"On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie."
The anticipation of the coming glory and happiness fills him with "joy unspeakable."