This message is one of the Times Square
pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou
hast lifted me up, and hast not made
my foes to rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried unto thee,
and thou hast healed me.
O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul
from the grave, thou hast kept me alive,
that I should not go down to the
pit.
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of
his, and give thanks at the remembrance of
his holiness.
For his anger endureth but a moment.
In his favorous life, weeping may endure for
a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Amen.
I think Sister Gwen had an idea of
what my message was tonight, and that's why
she had the choir sing that.
Joy cometh in the morning.
Amen.
Lord, we thank you.
We thank you for the great joy that
we have.
Lord, what great joy and victory we feel
here tonight.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
Lord, we're just being swept up in the
flow of your Spirit in this meeting.
Thank you, Lord.
Hallelujah.
Lord, thank you for the joy that has
come in the morning and will continue to
come.
And Lord, tonight you put on my heart
to talk about that morning.
Hallelujah.
A morning like no other morning will ever
be.
That morning when we'll be with you forever.
Hallelujah.
Lord, all of our joy, all of our
mornings point to that morning.
All of our joy points to that joy.
Lord, we thank you.
We have a measure of it now, but
it's only in part.
Now we know in part, but then face
to face.
Bless your people.
Bless your word.
Lord, touch people's lives here tonight.
Lord, there are some who, while we rejoice,
may not be able to rejoice because they
do not know the source of the joy
that you've given us.
And so, Lord, reach out through this auditorium
tonight.
Those that do not know you, those who
are backslidden, those who have something that has
robbed them of that joy.
Lord, minister to their hearts, we pray tonight
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Tonight I want to talk to you about
some reasons why there is, for the true
believer, joy that cometh in the morning.
However, what morning are we talking about?
When is that morning?
Now, to understand the biblical meaning of morning,
you have to know that God's day began
or begins with an evening and it ends
with a morning.
Ours starts in the morning and ends in
the evening.
God's arrangement is different.
His calendar is different.
We read all through the creation chapter in
Genesis.
The evening and the morning was the first
day.
The evening and the morning was the second
day.
The evening and the morning were the third
day.
Now all of that has a spiritual application.
There are many ways that that can be
applied.
For example, before we came to Christ, it
was evening.
For the man of the world, the man
that does not know the Lord, his life
begins in the morning.
It begins with a morning of opportunity, but
it always ends in the evening of despair.
But as a Christian, when you come to
Christ, it was evening, it was dark.
And in fact, some of you were saved
at the midnight hour.
You were near death, you were near destruction
until a light shone into your darkness.
And thereafter, it has been joy that cometh
in the morning.
And morning after morning after morning.
In fact, your morning has been turned to
morning.
In 2 Peter 1.9 says, we have
now also a more sure word of prophecy,
meaning the scripture.
Where unto you do well that you take
heed as a light that shineth in a
dark place until the day dawn.
And the day star, the day star arise
in your hearts.
There's only one way that you can experience
joy in the morning.
And that is by having the day star,
which is Jesus, arise in your heart.
Now, not only do we have that experience.
We not only pass from the darkness of
sin to the morning of salvation.
But from time to time, we pass through
nights of sorrow.
Nights of sadness, nights of suffering and pain
and sickness.
But even in these things, thank God, the
evening of sorrow always is followed by a
morning of joy.
A preacher friend loves to quote a verse
which is found from Genesis to Revelation.
I was sharing with him one time a
particular experience, a particular burden.
And he said, Don, he said, don't forget,
you know, whatever has happened, it comes to
pass.
It comes to pass.
And for example, that little phrase is all
through the scripture.
It says of Jesus, and it came to
pass that he did this.
It came to pass that he said that.
It came to pass that this happened in
his life.
And as I was sharing with this particular
minister friend about a particular situation I was
going through.
He said, Don, remember that thing you're going
through.
It came to pass.
I said, you know, sir, that's very profound.
Thank you.
It did.
It came to pass.
It came to pass away.
Our evening of sorrow always comes to pass
because God brings us into the joy of
a new morning.
But tonight I want to speak about a
joy that cometh in the morning.
I refer to a morning that is coming.
A final morning that will never again be
followed by another evening or another night.
Right now we are hurrying through the nightmare
of our human and earthly experience.
The shadows are dark and ominous.
And they're menacing.
But there is a morning coming that will
surpass all mornings.
And this particular morning will be followed by
a day that will never end.
The night that you are passing through right
now is only temporary.
And when the morning that I'm referring to
comes, there will be no more sorrow.
No more sadness.
No more suffering.
No more pain.
No more sickness.
No more temptation.
No more separations.
It's a time when, as the songwriter has
said, one glimpse of his dear face, all
sorrows will erase.
Oh, that's the joy, my friend, that's coming
in the morning.
I was driving my car a week or
so ago.
And the Holy Spirit came and filled that
glorified piece of junk that I drive.
The Holy Spirit filled that place, filled that
car.
And I started thinking about the things that
are going to be over when we get
to heaven and when we see Jesus.
And I want to tell you, I had
to watch it.
Because when that happens, I forget about the
speed and forget about everything.
It seems like my foot accelerates.
Because, you know, when the presence of God
gets heavy, then my foot gets heavy.
Officer, I was just thinking about heaven.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
I began to think, first of all, the
one thing, the first thing that thrills my
soul about that morning that's coming is that
the battle will be over.
The battle will be over.
Psalm 46.9 says, He maketh wars to
cease.
And what a day that will be when
our battles, your battle with temptation, your battle
with sin, your battle with trials, your battles
of your marriage, your battles of whatever, they're
all going to be over.
What a day that will be.
A second reason why there will be such
joy in the morning that will never again
be followed by darkness is because, like Apostle
Paul, I'm no longer going to be in
a strait or be in a fix.
And I'll explain that to you in a
few moments.
Because Paul talked about a strait, a dilemma,
a conflict that he was in.
And I want you to see tonight, I'm
going to prove to you that you're in
that same kind of conflict.
And that one day, that conflict is going
to be over.
Hallelujah.
And then finally, a part of the reason
there will be such joy in the morning
of the day we're forever with Christ is
because that which is perfect, that which is
perfect will have come.
These are three things or three reasons why
we ought to have heaven on our mind
and be always looking up because our redemption
and our Redeemer draweth nigh.
Let me go through these things tonight.
First of all, I look forward to the
day when all our battles will be over
and there will be no more wars.
Now, I take you to Psalms 30 because
David wrote Psalms 30 at a time when
a morning of joy followed a long period
of night.
It is believed that Psalms 30 was sung
and was introduced at the occasion of the
dedication of David's house or residence.
The residence of the king.
Now, why would David be so joyful over
building a house?
Doesn't it sound carnal to have the scriptures
record and for David to make such a
big thing and to have such high praise
in his heart because he was building a
house, a palace in Zion.
But that's what many believe that that's the
occasion.
That's what motivated this psalm.
That's why he had joy in the morning.
Now, the reason when you understand what was
going on, the reason he says in verse
1, I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou hast lifted me up and hast not
made my foes to rejoice over me.
You see, David had made that house of
cedar to live in, but it was not
just a house, it was what it represented.
He was now safely set on the throne
as a king.
He no longer lived in the cave of
Dulem or was going from cave to cave
or mountain to mountain or wilderness to wilderness.
He no longer had to battle against Saul.
He no longer had to go through nights
of being a fugitive and he was hunted
like a common criminal.
And furthermore, he had done nothing to deserve
it except the fact that he had been
God's chosen servant.
And so when he says, I will extol
thee for thou hast lifted me up and
hast not made my foes to rejoice over
me.
David, you see, had had plenty of enemies.
He had enemies during those days when he
fled from Saul.
He even had hidden enemies in his own
camp.
He had enemies in his own household, his
son.
And they had succeeded for a while in
driving him off his throne.
But there came a day for David when
the war ceased and God gave him rest.
Let me give you a little historical background
on it.
You don't need to turn to it, I'll
read it.
2 Samuel 5, 11 and 12, it says,
And Hiram, king of Ira, sent messengers to
David and cedar trees and carpenters and maces
and built David a house.
And David perceived that the Lord had established
him king over Israel and that he had
exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.
Two chapters later, verse 1, listen to what
it says.
And it came to pass.
What came to pass?
David's dark night and evening of warfare with
Saul had passed away.
It came to pass when the king sat
in his house and the Lord had given
him rest round about from all his enemies.
No wonder we hear him extolling the Lord
in Psalms 30.
He's rejoicing because, you see, the battle is
over.
He is set now on the throne.
He's finally come into his rightful inheritance.
And let me tell you something, you'd extol
the Lord too if you were sitting in
your apartment or your house instead of sitting
in a cave and having the whole nation
looking for you.
And to see who would be the first
one to spot David and go and squeal
on him and tell Saul so Saul could
find him.
And David's dark night as an enemy of
Saul was over.
And now he has a morning of joy.
He sits in his house.
And all I want to tell you, my
friend, one of these days you and I
are going to sit in our house.
Hallelujah.
And the battle's going to be over.
Glory to God.
The battle's going to be over.
David goes on and he talks about two
other things here.
Verse 2, he said, Oh Lord my God,
I cried unto thee and thou hast healed
me.
He does also believe that because David was
living as he was as a fugitive that
he wasn't eating proper.
He got sick and in fact it is
believed that he may have been even right
near death.
And in his sickness David cries to the
Lord and he thanks God for healing him
physically.
And even emotionally he was at the point
of despair.
Verse 3, Oh Lord thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave.
Thou hast kept me alive that I should
not go down to the pit.
But you see all of David's experiences are
a reminder of the battles that believers, you
and I, are continually engaged in.
And in verse 5, if you have Psalms
30 open, let me read it to you
again.
And David states this wonderful truth about the
evening and the night of his trials and
tribulation.
He says for his anger endureth for a
moment.
You see David during this time has moments
of self-doubt.
He has moments when he wonders even does
God love him because of all that he's
going through.
And so he says that it appeared even
that God was angry with him for a
moment.
But he said there's only a moment because
in his favor is life.
Weeping may endure for a night but joy
comes in the morning.
And my friend this has a lot of
applications but one of them I make to
you tonight is that it speaks to me
of the morning of the day of the
Lord.
And that day when all of our battle,
I look forward to that day my friend
because all our battles are going to be
over, hallelujah.
There will be no more souls, there will
be no more sickness, there will be no
more weeping.
Paul said it well, 2 Corinthians 7.5
he says for when we were coming to
Macedonia our flesh had no rest.
We were troubled on every side, there was
fighting within and fighting and fears without.
No wonder when you read some of the
things that Paul went through, turn with me
to 2 Timothy chapter 4.
No wonder when his journeys, after all of
his journeys, he writes this to us in
2 Timothy the 4th chapter.
It's a familiar passage but you have to
understand it in the context of what was
going on in his life.
He teaches us what our attitude should be
when it comes time for our departure to
be with Christ.
2 Timothy 4.6 he says for I
am ready, for I am ready to be
offered and the time of my departure is
at hand.
And you know the tone of his letter
is such that Paul is not asking for
comfort or condolence.
He didn't need a sympathy card at that
moment in his life.
Neither did he need some hyper faith person
to come along and say Paul you know
if you just trust God you shouldn't have
those negative thoughts.
You need to rebuke those negative thoughts.
Oh no Paul wasn't thinking about that.
Paul was thinking about the joy that was
going to come in the morning and so
he said I'm ready to depart.
And I was studying that word depart because
it's a very interesting word in the Greek
language.
The word depart is very picturesque and it's
applied in their everyday language in various ways.
For example the word depart was used to
refer to the unyoking of an animal from
the shafts of a cart or a plow.
And what David was saying, excuse me what
Paul was saying is that death or departure
or being with Christ was an unyoking from
all of the burdens that he had carried.
And he was saying I'm ready to depart,
I'm ready to be unyoked from all of
this and going to be with Jesus.
I don't know about you but I'm ready
to get unyoked.
Do you ever get weary of the heavy
load that you're carrying?
Do you ever feel like an ox that's
carrying a cart of heavy problems and heavy
debts and other problems?
Well listen God will give you strength now
to carry it but also remember one of
these days we're going to be unyoked.
And we're going to exchange a spirit of
heaviness for a garment of praise.
In that morning over there.
But the word for departure in its original
language also is used as a word for
loosening the ropes of a tent.
And for Paul you see he was saying
it's time to pull up the stakes and
to strike camp again, I'm moving on.
Now he had made many of a journey
across Asia Minor and Europe.
And as he did listen to what he
had to endure.
He said in my travels I have been
in constant danger from rivers and floods.
From bandits, from my own countrymen, danger in
high places, danger among false Christians.
I have been through toil and hardship.
I have passed many a sleepless night.
I have endured hunger and thirst.
I have often been without food.
I have been cold and I have experienced
nakedness.
But besides these things that are without.
That which cometh upon me daily the care
of all the churches.
And Paul reflecting back over the perils of
his journey.
He says and when he says now I'm
ready.
I'm ready to depart.
I'm ready to pull up stakes.
And my friend I don't know about you
but I identify with that.
I'm ready to exchange, I'm ready to pull
up stakes.
There's nothing that's got me held down on
this earth.
I'm ready to pull up stakes for the
last time.
To experience that final joy in the morning.
Now there's another reason.
Go with me to first, excuse me.
Go with me to Philippians.
Go to Philippians chapter 1.
I want you to see something else.
Philippians chapter 1.
Another reason that it will be joy that
cometh in the morning.
When we go to be with the Lord.
Is that never again will we be betwixt.
Have you ever been betwixt?
I'm going to explain it to you.
You don't know it but you are.
Listen to Philippians 1.23. He said for
I am in a strait.
I'm in a fix.
I am in a strait and then there's
this word.
I think the word is not in the
original.
I believe it was added by the translators.
He said I am in a strait betwixt
two.
Having a desire to depart and be with
Christ.
Which is far better.
Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more
needful for you.
Now I don't know if you're conscious of
it.
I don't know if like Paul you have
ever felt betwixt in this manner.
You see betwixt means to be in an
intermediate position.
Neither altogether one nor altogether another.
Let me give it to you again.
Betwixt means to be in an intermediate position.
Neither altogether one nor altogether another.
You see Paul had two worlds that are
pulling him at him at the same time.
The one from above and the one from
below in which he was involved not in
the world but in ministering to the world.
And so Paul said I'm in a fix.
I'm in a dilemma.
I'm betwixt because when I look up I
want to be with the Lord.
When I look out on the congregation I
want to be with you.
And so here is Paul.
That's what it means to be betwixt.
And he uses the word straight which is
a very heavy word.
It's a strong word.
It's a word that would be used if
you were in prison and they put you
between two prisoners.
You would be in a straight.
You would be in a dilemma.
You would be right and you couldn't move.
And so Paul applies this dilemma and he
feels caught in between this.
Now most of us, many of us experience
the same thing but you don't know it.
Let me prove it to you.
I want to do a little experiment now
and you got to follow me and you
got to do it.
And I'm not trying to treat you like
students or whatever and this is not a
trick.
I'm not setting you up for anything but
I want to prove to you that you're
just like Paul.
We're just like Paul.
Let me ask you this question.
How many of you want to go to
heaven?
How many of you want to go to
heaven?
Please raise your hand.
Alright, how many of you are ready and
willing now or tomorrow and the near future
to die to get there?
I didn't see as many hands and the
hands that I saw went up very, very
slow.
Now you understand Paul.
Now you understand Philippians 1.23. You see,
you've got yourself in Paul's same straight or
fix.
You want to go to heaven but you
don't want to die to get there.
And one of these days we're no longer
going to be in such a straight, we're
no longer going to be betwixt.
And the reason we're betwixt is that it
doth not yet appear what we shall be.
And oh thank God because if it did
appear what we shall be, none of us
would want to be here.
None of us would want to be here.
And the world would not be evangelized.
Yet we don't belong to this world except
for one reason and that is to sign
up as many people as possible to go
with us.
Hallelujah.
Otherwise only fools and sinners and kingdom now
people would want to stay here.
I'll let Gary North and Earl Polk and
all the rest of them, they can have
it, I'm betwixt, I'm ready to go, hallelujah.
And the only reason I want to stay,
I don't want to run Washington, I want
to save the world, we want to evangelize
the world.
That's the only reason we're here.
You see Paul was in a blessed straight.
Not between two evil things but between two
good things.
Between living for Christ and going to be
with him.
His desire, his inclination was for death.
Now most of us have an aversion to
death but Paul had a preference for death.
He said having a desire to depart and
to be with Christ.
You see Paul's straight was not between living
in this world and living in heaven.
Because between these two there can be no
comparison.
But his straight or his being betwixt was
between serving Christ in this world or enjoying
him in another world.
And yet it was Christ that was in
his heart.
And you see we ought to examine our
hearts.
Do you feel yourself in such a straight?
Do you know such a state of being
betwixt and between as the expression goes?
There should be only one reason for wanting
to abide in the flesh.
And that is to reach the lost and
to minister to others who are not yet
reached.
Otherwise there ought to be something in our
heart.
And oh if there's anything that I keep
coming back to in messages so often is
this.
Is that the church today has lost its
sense of eternity and having eternal values.
And the nearness of the coming of the
Lord and the desire to be with him.
The whole me generation concept has infiltrated into
the church.
And you just don't hear preaching or people
talk so much about wanting to go and
be with the Lord.
The only reason I want to Paul said
it's more needful for you to abide in
the flesh is more needful for you.
That's the only reason that I want to
say otherwise I'm ready to go.
I have nothing holding me.
Nothing holding me.
The life principle of a Christian can hardly
be put better.
He said in verse 21 of that first
chapter for me to live is Christ and
to die is gain.
In other words you can have your cake
and eat it too.
You got it made no matter what happens.
So we stay, we're staying here for the
call of God.
But if it wasn't for that I want
to go and be with the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Don't worry honey the Lord hasn't shown me
anything.
Don't get worried.
But if he wants to take me I'm
ready to go.
Hallelujah.
I'm ready to go.
The final reason why it will be joy
in the morning when we depart to be
with Christ is that the perfect will have
come.
The perfect will have come.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
1 Corinthians 13.
This is the end of side one.
Scriptures to those of you that know the
know the word.
1 Corinthians 13 says for we know in
part and we prophesy in part.
Ah but when the perfect comes the partial
that which is in part shall be done
away.
You see the joy that comes in the
morning.
That joy that is never followed by an
evening.
That joy will be because the perfect will
have come.
1 John 3.2 is a description of
this perfection.
Dear friends we are God's children now.
What shall we be?
What we shall be has not been revealed.
But we know but what we know is
that when it is revealed we shall be
like him.
The word perfection means completeness and wholeness.
Now I thank God that we have a
Christ that is revealed to us now.
A Christ that is sufficient for our redemption.
He's sufficient for everything that we face.
Every evening that we go through every trial
that we go through Christ is sufficient.
Matthew 13.11 Jesus said the secrets of
the kingdom of heaven have been given to
you.
We have truth that has set us free.
And I thank God for that.
Because you see some people are always looking
for some new exotic revelation or truth.
But I want to tell you I'm not.
I have everything I need now for righteousness
and holiness.
I have Jesus now it says ye are
complete in him.
But you see I want more of what
I already have.
And as wonderful as what I have and
know is still it's only in part.
And I long for a day when the
perfect comes.
You see so many Christians go off track.
Or the reason so many go off track
is that they do not search the scriptures.
They're not satisfied with a present revelation of
Christ.
Or they're not willing to wait for when
the perfect has come.
And so they keep looking for some new
some mystical revelation.
And this is how the enemy traps them.
And instead of going towards Christ all of
these mysticisms all of these so-called new
revelation.
Simply take them away from Christ.
But my friend I'm looking for a day
not down here on earth.
But I'm looking for a future day when
that which is perfect will come.
So that what that which is in part
will be done away with.
And when the end is once attained the
means to the end of course will be
abolished.
There will be no need of tongues no
need of prophecy.
For you shall see him as he is.
That's why that's why we sing oh what
a day that will be.
And you see our present state in comparison
to what it will be is referred to
by Paul.
As a state of childhood look at it.
He said he follows it up he said
when I was a child I speak as
a child.
I understood as a child but when I
became a man I put away childish things.
Do you know something we you see what
Paul was saying is that right now we're
as a child.
But we will be as a man in
eternity.
And what Paul really is saying is very
humbling.
He says referring to our present spiritual state
he said that even if I prophesy.
Even if I was taught the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven in such an extraordinary
way.
Still I am not out of my childish
state.
For all the knowledge of the word that
we may have.
And for all of the books that line
my walls.
That my wife feels in an undated with
sometimes I have to sneak books into the
house.
She says oh no another book.
For all of that and for all of
the years I've been working with walking with
a lot still I only understand as a
child.
I still only speak as a child.
Because that is such the difference between that's
what Paul is stating the difference between our
present state and the state which is to
come.
And let me tell you if we're ever
tempted to get puffed up by our spiritual
experiences.
If we're ever tempted to get puffed up
by all of the God-given gifts.
Or the revelations that he gives us or
the prophetic flow in our lives.
Remember we're only into kids stuff.
Spiritually speaking I'm not yet a man.
I still understand as a child I think
as a child.
And as a church bless your heart we
could put over the door Toys R Us.
I mean anytime we think we arrived.
Anytime we think we've got it we better
put that up there.
Because Paul said in comparison to what's going
to come.
This is only a part of it.
Hallelujah.
Until that which is perfect is come.
It is written I have not seen nor
ear heard neither hath it entered into the
heart of man.
The things that God has prepared for them
that love him.
Oh yes they are revealed by his spirit.
But still we're in a state of childhood.
I want to see Jesus because I'll be
a man.
Because that which is perfect will have come.
First Corinthians 13 12 says for now we
see through a glass darkly but then face
to face.
Now I know in part but then shall
I know even as I'm known.
Think of it.
That's a wonderful thought.
I will recognize Jesus even as he now
recognizes me.
I will understand this completely then as I
am understood by him now.
And these are just some reasons tonight.
Very simple reasons.
Simple message tonight.
Why there's going to be joy in the
morning.
Our battles will be over.
Hallelujah.
Our battles will be over.
We'll no longer be in a straight.
We'll no longer be fixed in that betwixt
state that Paul was talking about.
And that which is perfect will have come.
Praise his name.
Oh God put eternity in our hearts.
Put the love of his soon coming in
our hearts.
Put a love to see him in our
hearts.
May it prevail over our thoughts.
May it be in our minds every single
day that we live.
May we live that way.
These are also some good reasons why you
ought to be ready to meet the Lord.
If you're not ready to meet him.
Will you stand with me?
Will you stand?
Qualified than those who are less intelligent or
less capable.
But if they have a teachable spirit God
can use them.
And I'll take them any day.
I'll take them any day.
It's easier to mold clay than to chisel
a stone.
And when Jesus said to some of his
listeners.
Or what he said to them applies here
tonight.
Listen.
Matthew 18.3. And he, Jesus said, I
tell you the truth.