Verse number 10 of Isaiah 61, if you'll pray for us, Lord. Let's stand, just gonna read two verses, we'll pray. I do need the Lord's touch tonight and help if you pray with us. The Bible said in verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Verse 10 is where we'll take our thought tonight with the Lord's help. He said, Let's pray. Father, thank you for the time. That we have had together tonight. Thank you for the sweet spirit that we have experienced in this service tonight already through the singing. I pray you'd help us tonight. I stand where I cannot stand alone. I truly need the touch and the help of the Lord tonight. Not here to make a fair show in the flesh. Lord, just desire to magnify you and to glorify your name. I pray that you'd let us be a vessel sanctified. meet for the master's use tonight. And I pray that, Lord, we'd be a help and a strength to the people of God, that you would accomplish what needs to be done in our heart and in our lives in these moments that we have together. Help us to be sensitive to you. We'll give you the praise for all that you do. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You can be seated. Seems like the devil has convinced the world that being saved is a deprived and unfulfilling way to live. But here in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah says, Seems like the thought is this, that to get out of facing the judgment of God and spending an eternity in hell, one has to commit to a life of misery and denial. That's kind of the mindset that the world has when they look at you and I who claim to be saved by the grace of God and living a life that would honor and magnify the Lord. And so that process or that thought or mindset seems to revolve around that saved people can't. can't. That seems to be, that's what our young people struggle with. That same people just can't. But that's not the case at all. You see, it's not that we can't, it's that we don't. Now that sounds simple, but it's fairly profound when you think about it biblically, amen, this evening. I can't go here, I can't go there, I can't listen to this, I can't listen to that, I can't watch that, I can't go there, go here, do this, and on and on. and on and on and on is what the world thinks. And if you're not careful as a young man or as a young family, as you listen to the preaching of the Word of God, if you're not careful, you'll establish a mindset that can rob you of the spiritual joy of the salvation that God has you, amen, revolving around that word can't, when in reality, the child of God that values communion with the Lord and values fellowship in the Spirit of God and walking in truth is not about what we can't do, but it's about what we don't do. So I just want to talk to you tonight with the Lord's help for just a few moments on it's a joy to be saved. And I want everybody in the building to know in my heart and in my soul this evening, it is a joy to be saved. Living in the will of God and walking, amen, in the truth of God, it is a joy to be saved. But it seems like, and I'm not here to preach to any preachers tonight, maybe preaching to myself, but it seems like preachers have failed in distinguishing the spiritual differences between those two words, can't and don't. got a mindset in the church, amen, that seems to not be able to describe or biblically define what this thing of living for God is about. And so because of that, here's what we've seen in our society. It's all right to be honest, amen. But here's what we've seen. We've seen the failure of preaching biblical godliness, and we seem like we've traded holiness for hype. choosing to entertain our young people with the carnal things of this world and worldly activities in an effort just to keep them hanging around. Seems like that's what we've done. And we put such an emphasis on it that instead of nurturing a separated spiritual walk in sanctification with the Lord, that approach has smothered and it's stifled and silenced to seemingly the godly. And it's pressured them, pressured people that have at one time had a wall with God and lived a holy life in a depth of spirituality that seems to supersede where we're at in this generation. It seems to have pressured those people to either get out or assimilate, amen, to that philosophy. Oh, you know, here's where I'm at. It seemed like we have an attitude, as long as we believe the King James Bible, that's good enough. And why? And we've thrown out everything else that separated us, amen, from godly living. everything as a boy that separated us from the liberal crowd and the world. But now we champion the King James Bible. Thank God for that. Amen. It's the Word of God for the English-speaking world. I believe that and preach that, but that's not the only thing that separated us, amen, from dead religion. It seems like we've smothered, smothered, amen, the depth of godliness, and now we have a church full of people who live each day looking for what they can get by with and not go to hell, instead of just having a thirst and a desire to walk with the Lord. But I want you to know tonight, amen, from the Bible, as Isaiah puts it, and all through the scripture, it's a joy to be saved. It's a joy, amen, to live for God. And I don't know where we've got this mindset at or where it's come from outside of just trying to survive maybe or a church trying to hang on the best they can, but it's a joy for young people to be saved. It's a joy, amen, to know the Lord and the three pardon of sin. Don't cost anything, this thing's free. Cost the Lord God his life, amen, but it's free to you and I. Amen, it brings freedom, deliverance from sin and we live tonight forgiven by and through the grace of God and we have fellowship, amen, communion with the Lord and one with another based on the joy that is brought into our life. This full joy, it satisfies beyond measure. It's a joy to be saved. And so when I thought about that phrase that's brought out in verse number 10, I thought about the motive of the joy of salvation. And it's all found in these verses. I'm sure you've noticed it, but just give me a little time to preach it tonight with the Lord's help. It's a joy to be saved. The motive of that joy is seen in verse 10 in the fact that he clothed me. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He clothed me, amen. Sin always exposes man. ever lost man possesses an inward sense of the enmity that is between him and God because it is sin. And it's a shame, it's a shame that no human covering can conceal sin. It's the conscious of a man at work. Amen. Brother Billy Mitchell used to say, he used to say often, your conscience is not gonna save you. But you can't get saved without one. That's what the old man of God used to say. Sin reveals the condition of the heart no matter what efforts are made to hide it. Man's still in his heart. A man remains spiritually naked before God. That's where I was at. separated from God, no matter what I'd done, no matter how many fig leaves I would sow up, amen, to cover who I was, no matter how I would blend in with the trees of the garden, I'd go to the house of God, sit in a church service, the man of God would open up the Bible, and I felt unclothed, I felt naked before everyone that was there. I'm telling you, walking each step of life, fear and unsatisfied and unfulfilled, wondering, is this all that life has to offer? I just simply felt unclothed, but tonight, oh, happy day, amen, when Jesus washed my sins away and the grace of God brought this salvation to my soul and the joy, amen, of knowing, standing before God I'm no longer at enmity with God, but in fellowship with God, based on the garments of the righteousness of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Just like Adam and Eve was robed in the sacrifice of an innocent lamb, God took the righteousness of his son and robed me in a garment that he would accept and would be pleased with. I can't imagine that, that it pleased the Lord to bruise him, but through that sacrifice that Christ made at Calvary for our sin, predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure his will. I can't understand that phrase. I can't fathom that phrase. That in the good pleasure of his will, amen, not the necessity, not the have to, but in the good pleasure of the will of God, he He sent His Son, amen, to Calvary, amen, to make a provision, and by that, to the praise of the glory of His grace, amen, we're in. He has accepted us in the Beloved, amen, and because I come before Him clothed in the righteousness of Christ, I am accepted in His sight this evening. It's good to be saved. The nakedness of my sin has been clothed in his righteousness. And that's a joy. If that ever rings, amen, a bell in your heart, you can rejoice. You can experience an element of spiritual joy that reaches beyond anything this world could ever give you. The fact that, amen, in your sin and the exposure that sin manifested in your life before a holy God. Tonight, amen, we stand in his presence clothed in his righteousness. But he not only clothed me, in verse 10, but he covered me. He covered me. Standing before God the sinner, every thought tonight is known. Every secret sin is open. before him. Every failure remembered that's not been confessed and put under the blood of the Lord Jesus. You see, the Bible said, the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the faults and the intents of the heart. But in verse 13 of Hebrews 4, it says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight. But all things are naked and open under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." And every time the Bible is preached, every time I went to the house of God as a young man, amen, I felt exposed, like everyone was looking at me, that I was uncovered, who I was, what I was, where I was, everything about me. I felt was open before everybody because the Word of God had exposed my sin. I was uncovered. Amen. Oh, but for the joy of sins this evening forgiven. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth for propitiation. That word means covering through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. John put it this way, and he is the propitiation for our sins and for not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He emphasized it again here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Simply again means covering. It described a man in the mercy seat that sat upon the ark in the Old Testament, a man that covered everything that man, a man possessed in his heart, his soul, and in his mind that drew a line between him and God. Ark of the Covenant, if we were going to prioritize it, no doubt the most important article of furnishing in the holy place and the holy of holies without doubt the place where God would come and meet with the people of God, and in that ark represent, I always puzzled about that until a number of years ago, but laying in that ark was three different things, and those three different things represent everything that creates enmity between man and God. The broken tables of the law, the pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded. You ever thought about that? Why God would need a mercy seat to cover those three things? Why God would need to apply the blood every year on that mercy seat to atone for Israel's sin from one year to the next? God's precepts were in there. That's an easy one to figure out. Amen. The broken tables of the law, Genesis chapter 2, and the Lord God commanded the man saying, a simple command, And the breaking of that command, the violation of that law, amen, brought enmity between God and man. That had to be covered. The provision of God is found in that. That manna represented God's provision in the wilderness. And he said, you know, in the Garden of Eden, he said, thou mayest eat of every tree. God made great provision for Adam and Eve, but that one tree, you don't partake of that tree. And so, it seemed like these three things seemed to have an ongoing issue in the life of human beings that live in a fallen state, live in a fallen state in a sin-cursed world. It seemed like they prevail in our mind. There could have been a lot of things. They could have been something that would represent adultery or fornication or thievery or any other kind of sin, God could have represented it in that ark, but he summed it up by those broken tables of the law. He summed it up by that manna, that provision that God had placed, and they constantly were never satisfied with what God had to offer. Then Aaron's rod that budded. Amen. I believe that represents the preacher. Not necessarily the preacher, as a man, but what the preacher says. Because you see, in Genesis 3-1, the devil said, yay? There wasn't no preacher in Genesis. Just God, and God told them what he expected of them. God commissioned them as to what they were to do, and what they were to stay away from, or not to partake of. And Aaron's rod that budded represented to the nation of Israel the authority of God's man and what God's man would represent in their life. And the devil told him, yea, hath God said, hath he really said this? That ever happen to you? Preacher preaches? Yea, hath God said? You ever question the commandments of God, the validity of them? The reality of them in our life? But you see, that's where I was in my life. I constantly was breaking the law of God, living in sin. walking down the path of iniquity, and I never could get a grip on the fact that God could fulfill the longing of my soul and satisfy what I was hungry and thirsty for. I thought surely the world had everything I needed, everything I wanted, and so I would reach, but I'd go to bed every night, wake up every morning still wanting, still thirsty, He was still hungry. Are you listening? And I'd go listen to the preacher. That old man don't know what he's talking about. He don't have any idea what's going on in my life and what I need and what I want and what I desire. But it was a glad day when I experienced the richness of the joy of the saving grace of God. And when I realized, amen, that his commandments wasn't grievous and all that he had to offer fulfill the longing of my soul and satisfy the thirst that I had within. Are you listening? That's a joy to know that God in his salvation has covered every bit of those things. Every one of those things that separates man from God. Amen. God covered that in the life of the Son of God. Every deed Amen, amen. Taken care of through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly where I was at prior to grace. I was in enmity with God. I was uncovered. But Christ, through his death, became that propitiation that would cover all I was and would be. He covered my deed with his life. He covered my debt, amen, with his death. You see, this book was against me. I don't know who's here tonight. You may be here in this building tonight and you don't know the Lord, and you feel like this book is against you, these handwriting of ordinances that we preach from, that we teach, and that we allow to govern our life, and we allow it to govern our life with a peace and a joy, and you just can't understand it. You can't figure it out this evening. but this book was against me, it condemned me, it exposed me, it told me who I was and what I was, but thank God the day that I got born into the family of God, amen, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, amen, he nailed it to the cross and he took it out of the way, thank God, and no longer is it against me, but it guides me, it governs me, thank God, it feeds my soul. I'm telling you, it's good to be saved. It's good to be saved because, amen, it's good to be clothed, amen. It's good to be saved, it's good to be covered, amen. This evening, my debt has been covered. Not only did he clothe me, not only did he cover me, but he courted me. Amen, he said, as the bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Amen, I'm thankful, amen, for the expressions of his love and his passion. The song, the writer of the Song of Solomon, Solomon said, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. The psalmist said, Thou wilt show me the path of life in Thy presence is fullness of joy at Thy right hand, there are pleasures for evermore. The passion that He's shown me, the desire that He wants to commune with me, Amen, the precepts that he gives me to guide me and to lead me in Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And then this verse is something that is staggering to a husband. It says this, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, amen. And so we understand that in the biblical perspective in regard to the home, amen, the communication that the husband has with the wife, amen, makes her what he desires for her to be. Need to think about it for a minute. The way you communicate with your wife, if we love her as Christ loved the church, opens up, amen, a lot of communication that cleanses us, cleanses her, and makes her presentable to him. Amen. Is that not right? Is that not what's going on in our life between us? I'm not preaching on the home tonight, I don't think, but is that not what's going on between us and the Lord through His words to us? It is His words is making us everything that He desires for us to be. And the day, amen, that I got saved by the grace of God, the Word of God became alive in my soul and I realized, amen, that He desired to be with me, to communicate with me. He had a passion for me that I could not imagine in my mind. And the exposition of His words to me, amen, was to draw me near unto Himself and make me everything that He wanted me to be. What a joy. That's why the Word of God, amen, is precious to the child of God. That's why it's a joy in the soul of every saved, born-again Christian, because we know that it is the words of our Savior, and everything He speaks to us is drawing us nearer to Himself. The expectations of His promises He said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also, amen. Those are courting words, amen. Those are compassionate words. Those are words that unveil his desire, amen, to be with us. And I remember when my wife went to college, we were in love, or at least I was, I had it bad. And her dad wanted her to go to a year of college before we made any plans of getting married, and so took her off to Gaffney to go to Limestone College there in South Carolina, and I didn't like it. I didn't like it because there's other fellas there. Amen. I didn't like it at all. Amen. Not a bit. Amen. And I hope that she understood in my conversations with her and how I felt about that, that I wanted her close to me. That's what He wants. And it's a joy to be saved just to know that He wants to be with me. And then He said, I go to prepare a place for you, make you some promises. That's courting. I promised her some things, amen. I told her some things, amen. I might have been lying about some of them, but I was trying, amen, I was courting her. I wanted to, yeah, I meant well. I wanted to be with her and I wanted her to be with me, even if I had to make it up. Amen. Made her some promises. Jesus made the disciples those promises. And to the church, those promises, that where I am there, you may be also. Amen. We've had a lot of tragedy at Pleasant View Baptist Church. A preacher was preaching last night, both of them. My mind starts running back to all the babies, teenagers. the horrific things that as a church we have dealt with in 38 years, how many I've buried, and how many things we've had to go through as a church, this staggering. My mind, as I was thinking about this thought, my mind ran back to a number of years ago. There was a lady in our church, she had lupus. And it was in, I guess, remission. She was not having a lot of issues with it at the time. And her and her husband wanted to have a child. They desired to have a baby. And so the doctors told her that they thought, under the circumstances and the fact that it wasn't affecting her to a large level at this time, that she could probably carry a pregnancy with no trouble. And so the Lord blessed them. She conceived, and several months into the pregnancy, the lupus flared up, and it went bad quick. I was going to, me and Brother Norris were headed to West Virginia to preach in a meeting together, and had to stop by the hospital, and it was not good. I had to send him on and stay behind that meeting. And as she lay in the bed, boy, this is something that's staggering, but she told her husband, she said, before she went out and was not able to communicate at all, she said, if it comes between my life and the life of this baby, you better make for sure that this baby lives. And so things got, she started swelling her legs and started just like somebody put an explosive on her leg, just busted and erupted. And she wouldn't take any of the pain medication because she was afraid that it was going to hurt the child. But she went into early labor. Long story short, they lost the little boy. She was not conscious when the baby was aborted by her body and they placed the child on her chest for a little while. And then the doctor says that she's not going to make it. I'm driving down Dixie Highway headed home when Brother Steve called and he's weeping on the phone. He says, preacher, they're saying she's not gonna make it now. There's just no way that she can survive what she's been through. And for weeks and weeks and weeks and hours and days of dialysis and all that went on, it was staggering, but she lived through that. But so she's in the hospital and she's fighting every day for her life. And I'm trying to handle things for the baby. They wanna have, you know, they wanna bury the little boy on the farm. So me and my son-in-law, I don't know if my son went, we had a couple, three of us, we go out there and we hand dig a grave, the dad, the granddad comes out, we get the grave dug, waiting, it's cold, if I remember correctly. We get in the grave, Doug. You know, they told us how big to dig it, and the hearse came in, swung behind the house, and come down into the field where we were at. And they had this little casket, little white casket, and they got it out. And we were just about to set little Lincoln down in that hole, and the hearse driver, the funeral home director said, hey, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. He said, uh, which way is the east? I said, I don't have no idea. I get lost at the phone booth. I don't know much about geography. My wife will tell you that. And I said, I don't know. So I'm looking for the sun, you know, and see where the sun come up. He said, we need to make sure we place this little fella, you know, in this hole. So he's facing the east. So the first face he'll see will be the face of the son of God. Amen. I never even thought about that. But we've been made some promises. Amen. It's a joy to be saved because of the hope I have within my soul. We may not get home tonight, but we might be home tonight. Amen. And so, it's a blessing, amen, to know that in the joy of the salvation that God has placed within our soul, that there's some expectation that we have down within the recesses of who we are because of what the Lord has done. Amen. And He cultivates us. Oh, it's such a joy to be saved. So much going on in the life of the believer that the world can never replace. He clothes us. He covers us. He courts us. In verse 11, as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Cultivates us. I have a potential to bear fruit for the sovereign God of heaven. That should stagger us, amen, being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it under the day of Jesus. You young men, you young ladies in this building, you young families, you have the opportunity to do something with your life that is of eternal value. Now you may accomplish a lot of things in this world that people may see and they and may applaud you for or may congratulate you on your accomplishments. There's a lot of things that we can achieve, but there's nothing greater, nothing more precious than for the child of God to understand spiritually in the depths of their soul that the cause of this great salvation that God has granted unto us and the joy that we can experience through this salvation, that we can do things for the glory honor of the Lord. Amen. And so there's a motive for this joy. You have any joy? Are you glad you saved? Amen. Do you rejoice in the goodness that God has manifested in your life simply because He was willing to come to this sin-cursed world? Amen. It's a simple message, but a very complicated act of redemption that you and I know through the grace of God. Then I want to mention a few things that ought to be done about the ministry of that joy. What does that joy do? So if you're here this evening and you say, I know I'm saved, but I've just lost, I don't know, just not what it used to be. Just feel like there's some things that just empty inside. You see, the joy of being saved, that joy has a ministry in your life. Amen. So I began to look at verses in the scripture that connect the joy of salvation with what that joy manifests in our lives. I thought about the purpose that it gives our soul. Do you have a purpose tonight? I'm talking about an eternal purpose. I mean, can you as an individual establishing the will of God in your life as, well, I'm not a preacher, I'm not talking about preachers tonight. I'm not a missionary. I'm not talented. I'm not talking about any of those things tonight. I'm talking about a divine, eternal purpose that you have from the sovereign God of heaven. The psalmist said, my soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in his salvation. Does your soul have purpose? You see, the joy of salvation will give your soul purpose. There's not a one of us in the building that haven't in some time or another in our life felt like there was just no purpose. There's not a one of us that haven't come to a place in our life where we stopped and thought, what are we doing? Why are we doing it? Are we wasting our time? And there's not a person in the building tonight that's ever got to that place who had not, in some sense of the word, allowed the joy of salvation of what God has done for you to diminish. and deplete in your life. You families today can have dreams for your future. I have the opportunity, and I know it's very unusual, but I have the opportunity to serve the Lord with my family. All my children are in the church, serving the Lord in the church. All my 14 grandchildren, all of them that are at an age where they can do anything, they're in the church, serving the Lord, singing, playing their instruments. That's a very unusual opportunity. Most men don't have that opportunity. I'm blessed for that. Amen. I should have all I act. That's a man. That's a purpose. We rate. We didn't, my boy didn't play sports. I mean, he was a good baseball player, but we didn't put him in organized sports. I said, we didn't put him in organized sports. Amen. He wasn't practicing on Wednesday nights. Amen. Amen. Me and my wife vowed that we would train our children and nurture them in such a way where they could serve the body of Christ and bring, amen, honor and glory to the Lord with their life. Whether they did it or not, that was their choice. but we guided them and directed them down a path where their life could be used, amen, to serve the Lord God of heaven and be a part of the church. See, that joy, amen, they saw that joy. You know, the greatest thing you can do as a mom and dad in behalf of your children is let them know and let them see a genuine joy of what it means to be saved by the grace of God. I'm telling you, it'll give you dreams for your family. Amen. It'll give you some decision-making abilities to be fruitful with your life. It'll give you a drive that's fervent, that when, yes, the sparks are flying upward and, yes, when you can't catch them and they're going in every direction and you know what's going on in your life, the joy of this salvation can drive you another step in life to serve God, can take you another week, another month, another year to serve the Lord. Do you have that joy? Amen, it'll give you purpose for your soul. It'll give power, amen, to your strength. It's one thing to be strong, it's another thing to be powerful. The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Do you have spiritual strength tonight? Do you have spiritual strength or not that has the power to move forward spiritually in a sin-cursed world that's pulling in every direction but the direction that you're going in? The joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of this salvation that we're preaching about and how you treat it and how you feel about it is relevant and imperative if you're going to experience that strength. I thought about this, it gives praise to your song. You can sing, we got a lot of singers, I mean, at church, big choir, a lot of groups, unbelievable amount of talent, we thank the Lord for it. But they can sing, but they're singers in Nashville. But the sovereign said, O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Amen. Amen. Mr. Loretta and them singing a while ago, just a touch of God. Amen. You see, it'll put praise in your song. That song, those lyrics, those words, they come alive to you. Oh, we can be astounded at the talent, we can be astounded at the closeness of the harmony, and all the fill-ins of the instruments and the details. everything that's going on in the song service. My daughter, we have a Christmas program that's massive with the orchestras and horns and choirs and everything else, and it's amazing how it comes together. But I'm telling you, if it has no touch of God on it, it's just entertainment. It's just impressive. But we're not here to be impressive. Amen. It puts praise in your song. The gestures can be memorized, the movements, everything. Is anybody listening to me tonight? Everything can be nothing but play and plan and a program with no God. If there is within your soul a joy of what God has done in your heart, I'm telling you, the countenance is different. Do you see that countenance, Walter? The countenance is different. I mean, the glow is different. The anointing is different. It has something different on it. Boy, we need that. But it comes, amen, when you experience what this salvation is about and the fullness of joy that you can know and experience through it. Amen. What will it do, preacher? It'll give your song some praise. Well, we're just different. I done heard that story. I don't wanna hear it anymore. I preach from the north. I don't get around much, but I, don't ask me how I got in this meeting, but I was preaching in Colorado, you know, the granola world, and everybody's a doctor. You know, and I, I mean, I wouldn't even make a good orderly, but everybody's, you know, got all these, it's a prayer advance meeting is what it's called. A men's meeting, prayer advance meeting. And so, one of the men called me and asked me to come and preach, and don't ask me again why, I don't have no idea, because I'm different, to say the least. And so, I'm preaching and I'm loud, and sometimes extremely loud. But you know, I'm preaching, you know, and there's like some of you are. Yeah, go up north, go up north and say, well, we're just, we're not like y'all are down in the south, in the south land. You know, we're just different out west. People are different out west. I said, that's a lie. I said, y'all lied. And I said that to them, all these doctors sitting out there, Bible, you know, got all kinds of degrees. And I said, y'all lying. Y'all said, well, we just do things different out here. We're just ignored, made up, made up a little different. We don't, we don't act that way. I said, that's a lie. I said, it don't make no difference if you in Alabama, South Alabama, or if you in the Northern point of Michigan. and the football team scores a touchdown, both sides act the same exact way. Their gestures are the same way. Their confidence is the same. They jump up and scream and holler. You couldn't tell one from the South, one from the North, Hawaii, amen, or nowhere else, amen. I said, that's a lie. So I don't wanna hear it. So don't tell me that tonight, amen. Because I don't believe it. I don't believe it at all. Because every man in this building that's a man, he's in love with his wife, and she kisses him on the cheek tonight. Amen. It don't make no difference if he's from the south, the north, the east, or the west. It's all going to be the same. So what I'm trying to tell you tonight is if you, and I don't how in the world I got off on all this. What I'm trying to tell you tonight is if you will let the joy of the salvation that the God of heaven has put in your life, young man, I'm telling you, when you stand up, you might not be able to carry a tune in a bucket or do anything, but you can lift up your voice in praise and honor and magnify the Lord. because it's a joy to be saved. And joy is not defined differently in the south or the north or the east or the west. Amen. It puts presence in your shout. Amen. The psalmist said, I will also clothe her priests with salvation and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. What about that? The psalmist said, but let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. Ringing cries. What that means? Shout, that's what that means. You know what it means. You've shouted at your wife. You know what it means to shout. You've shouted at your husband. Amen. My wife hit her toe on a guitar case in the motel room. She shouted. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous and shout for joy for all ye that are upright in heart. It's a joy to be saved. Holy spiritual worship. Brother Rayne, Brother Larry Rayne's my pastor. And he don't get out a lot. He hasn't been up our way in a number of years. But I call and check on him, talk to him. And he gets to preach locally some. When he feels like it, he'll slip out and go preach, you know. And without question, if I call Brother Ray and say, how's things been going? You've been out preaching a little bit? You've been busy? Yeah, I've been here and there, whatever. I say, well, how's the service going? Without question, he'll say the same thing. No worship. Every time. In the south, the buckle of the Bible belt. No worship. No worship. That shit scare us. We produce something that's, something's wrong. Amen. It's a joy to be saved. The peace that gives your satisfaction, amen. The joy of salvation quenches the thirst and satisfies the mind. And I just want to say tonight in closing, I'm satisfied with Jesus. And it's a joy to be saved. And I thank God. I mean, you know that joy can be stolen away. David said, Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. And you understand that in a moment of time, society can swallow it up. Sin can steal it away. Satan can smother out the joy of your salvation if you're not careful. Is that what's happened? Find yourself in the wrong place, looking at the wrong direction, wanting the wrong things. No one in this building is above being ensnared and robbed of the joy of salvation. No one in this building is above going through the motions, playing a game, acting an act that's not real. David again said, restoring to me the joy of thy salvation. Months of misery had went on in David's life after he had committed that sensual sin. Conviction overwhelming his soul. Everything a man could ever want in life, he had it. But the most important thing, and that was joy, it was gone. That abundant life had vanished. David had experienced and lived in it and loved it, but sin had snatched it away. But David knew that God was a God of mercy and he desired to have that restored. I don't know if that's the case tonight. You may have sin in your life and salvation and the joy that it manifests maybe has drifted from the innermost part of your soul because of sin or the world pulling at you. But I just want you to know it's a joy to be saved. It's good to be saved. It's good to be saved. That song says, I'm glad, it's good to be saved. I'm glad that my sins are all washed away. No matter, amen, whatever happens, my sin that is paid, I have been born again, justified, washed in the blood of the precious lamb, something like that. He said, it's good to be saved. It's wonderful to be born in the family of God. But what has happened to us? Where have we got that joy is just stifled and smothered by the pressures of the world that we live in? Technology, no doubt. Everything that we've seen in our society has pulled the minds of young people down a pathway, down a road. They know nothing about the realness of God. I started to say this a little while ago and didn't, but you parents, the greatest thing that you could ever show your children is the genuine reality of what salvation manifests in the life of an individual and the joy that it brings. There's an old fella, and I'm done, I don't want to ramble. There's an old fella at Pleasant View Baptist Church, name was Charlie. He'd shout, drop the hat. I mean, he'd shout to drop the hat, knock the hat out of your hand. I mean shout. And come in the church parking lot one day on two flat tires. I mean, a car full of kids. They just kept getting out of the car. There's kids coming out everywhere. And come in the parking lot, two tires flat, and when he got out and slammed the door, another one blowed. He got out running around the car, shouting, in the parking lot of the church, just shouting all the time. Called my daddy, run the record business, and called my daddy one time, said, hey, I flipped my paint truck over in the ditch over here in the kudzu vine. Told him where it was at. Daddy went over to get him. He got out of the wrecker, found the van, rolled over in the ditch in the kudzu vine, couldn't find Charlie nowhere. And he started listening. He heard him out in the woods, shouting. Praising God, just out there by himself. And I remember, I was just a young little old boy about these wool sides sitting on the front row. Pleasure View Baptist Church. He'd sing. For a long time I traveled down a long lonely road. My heart was so heavy, in sin I sank low. But then I heard about Jesus. He'd make about four or five laps. Amen. He's saying, thank God I am free, free, free from this world of sin. I've been washed in the blood of Jesus. I've been born again. Hallelujah, I'm saved. saved, saved, saved by His wonderful grace. I'm so glad that I found out He would bring me out and show me the way." And then he would say, what did he say? He'd say, like a bird. I mean, he's walking around the whole bit. Like a bird out of prison that's taken his flight. Like a blind man that God gave back his sight. I'm telling you, while I sit there and stare at that man, the power of God and the touch of God, that old man, just glad he was saved, didn't have much. Amen. But he just had joy. Wouldn't it be a blessing tonight for that to be restored in the church like it once was? when people were just full of joy and the reality of being happy and glad that they're saved by the grace of God. So if you don't remember anything that I've said tonight, just remember this, it's a joy to be saved.