1C. First, there is its nature. Its nature is holy. It comes from a holy heart. That’s why it’s called the fruit of the Spirit: which is love, joy, and peace. Such is its nature. And no one who rejoices in the truth will settle for anything less than that kind of joy.

2C. Second, its object. You see, rejoicing in the truth always, either immediately or eventually, has God for its object. It’s for this reason that the people of God are frequently called upon to rejoice in the Lord. It’s much like a fountain that never runs out of joy. Every other source of joy must fail, eventually.

3C. The happy face must fall, and your youthful body must fade and die. But God remains the same through all else changes. So, on Him your hopes may lie. He is the Rock your joy can firmly rest on. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice."

1C. If He is then your joy will rise up from a sense of His all surrounding presence. "In thy presence is fullness of joy," the Bible says. And those that remember their Creator in the days of their youth are not happy about ignoring God’s presence. Their joy began with believing in Christ.

2C. Remember, the Philippian jailer who just before trembled, rejoiced, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And many young people, who were miserably trembling in view of the judgment to come, on believing in Christ have rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

3C. Further, there are particular times in which every young person who pays attention to the glory of God and his own soul will rejoice. Sunday is a special time. It’s a day appointed by God Himself to pay attention to His glory and your own soul. "A day in his courts is better than a thousand," the Bible says. And it also says, "This is the day which the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." And what more fitting application does this verse have than Sunday?

4C. But if you can’t rejoice in this way and in this manner and on such occasions as these, then there is nothing in which you can rejoice. For you there is nothing in heaven and nothing on earth but the pleasures of your senses.

5C. The same can be said of cheerfulness. Some call cheerfulness a virtue. And maybe they’re right. After all, there’s nothing spiritual about being gloomy. So, don’t think God is not to be served and obeyed without cheerful obedience. Human beings have nothing to do but duty.

6C. And you do not do your duty for long without cheerfulness. If the doing of your duty is not pleasant and delightful to the soul, however much a sinner may do, God condemns all of it. No duty has been done to God where there is no cheer and delight.

7C. People your age are likely to think of spiritual things as a gloomy subject. And you may feel this way so strongly that the dread of spiritual things makes you recoil even when you feel guilty and convicted of your sins. But do you not realize that even repentance itself is accompanied with joy? Jesus said, "Son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee."

8C. You see, no amount of joy and cheerfulness is forbidden by the Word of God. On the contrary, every young person is commanded to rejoice in the Lord, and to walk cheerfully on in the path of duty. And whatever may hinder your progress, whether so-called Christians or evil companions, you are freely and cheerfully to forgive them all, and to glory in nothing save the cross of Christ. It’s your duty to be cheerful in this way.

9C. So, you have a choice. You either cheerfully leave all to come to Christ or be content to take what’s coming to you in this world. You either cheerfully leave all to come to Christ or, as with the young man in the Gospel, go away from Christ sad and grieved.

10C. Let those who have really come out of the world and who have really come to Christ walk cheerfully on in the path of duty. In Christ, you have peace like unsaved people do not have. And this is good, since there are many trials and difficulties that await you in life.

11C. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, Christ has overcome the world. So, it is clear that God has no opposition to joy and cheerfulness in the lives of His children.

1C. Maybe you’re ashamed to step up in front of your friends and openly profess Christ and speak up for His cause.

2C. Perhaps you turn your back on Christ’s followers, and prefer the company of the unsaved. Maybe you even gravitate to the unsaved even here at Church. You’re cheerful and social with your friends, but you say little or nothing to them about the great things of eternity and what will happen to them when they die.

3C. And perhaps you are so far gone that you are unwilling to have your friends think that you have any concern for the God that made you. Maybe you are one who does not look forward to Church on Sunday and you greatly prefer Saturday and play time, instead.

1C. You have no delight in seeing a friend come to Christ. Maybe you cry a while in secret. But that’s only because you think you have lost your friend. Because he’s determined not to travel down the wrong path, but chooses rather to renounce even you, his dearest friend, so that he might serve God and do right.

2C. And now, since you make no pretense of being saved, you may have gone so far as to justify your wicked conduct, all the while becoming an openhearted and avowed enemy of God.

3C. Whatever your situation is, you are a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God. And you’re unwilling to be dragged from your dream of pleasure. You’re determined not to be alarmed about the trial that awaits you before your angry Judge.

1C. Let your heart cheer you. You can easily be cheerful. You have only to follow your inclinations. You’re impatient when you don’t get your way and you simply cannot endure self-denial. It makes you miserable. When you don’t get exactly what you want you feel terribly put out, and you’ll shun as an enemy anyone who tries to faithfully reprove you.

2C. Don’t nobody tell you what to do. Never will you hear the call to any sense of duty. Don’t tolerate anyone trying to awaken your fear or alarm your conscience by pointing you to the consequences of your life, either. Leave you alone. That’s all that you want to be perfectly happy. Let your heart cheer you. And then we will all see that your joy and your cheerfulness springs from doing only what you want to do.

3C. To do be happy you have only to contemplate and then pursue whatever is pleasant to the eye, and on whatever the imaginations of your evil heart delights to dwell. Regardless of the consequences, your imagination focuses only on what grabs your attention.

4C. A stranger to the delights of serving God, you seldom think of duty and therefore you frequently engage in activities which to the Christian would have no meaning. And if anyone ask you the reason for your joy and cheerfulness, you’re either silent or you blush to tell it.

5C. Your greatest fun comes from doing mindless things, engaging in childish play. Next to immediate gratification everything to you is dull and lifeless, and has no meaning.

Solomon implies this in Ecclesiastes 12.1: "Remember now thy Creator."

1C. The presence of God actually chills your soul. And when you reflect on it for just a moment, the thought of God’s presence strikes your pleasure dead in its tracks. Your best amusements are with worthless things, usually done with the lighthearted and thoughtless people of this world, where nothing of God is heard, except to blaspheme His holy name.

2C. You can make jokes about spiritual things, but you intend no harm. You’re only trying to have fun and get people to laugh. Perhaps you’ll dabble with spiritual things at a distance. But you want religion in your life to know its place, and not intrude to interrupt and spoil your fun. You say to God in effect, "Depart from me, for I desire no the knowledge of your ways."

3C. All your joy and cheerfulness arises from the pursuit of pleasure, or in the indulgence of your own pleasures. Which means, you walk not after the Spirit, but after the flesh; not by faith, but by sight. But to be carnally minded is death. "And if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," the Bible says.

4C. And so, despite the fact that you’re a cheerful guy, death is inscribed by the finger of God on your soul and on all your soul’s delights while you continue to walk in the ways of your heart.

Is this you?

1C. You’re not satisfied, but neither will you yet believe that all is vanity. Solomon concluded that you’d not be convinced of your folly until you’ve come to judgment. You may experience pangs of conscience at first. But when you’ve found your way through some difficulties, you gain strength and find the way of cheer and merriment easier because your conscience is seared.

2C. You wish others would leave you alone. You love darkness, and you’ll run from the light of conviction. But this cannot always be done, and so you work hard so as not to be convinced of sin and to come to repentance, but to silence your fears, and to soothe your conscience.

3C. There are times we can hear you plead your cause and justify your pursuit of pleasure. And since no one ever yet set himself to prove directly that sin is a duty, you give your conduct the soft names of "harmless" and "innocent." You oftentimes use the example of others as justification or excuse, and you’d love to be able to prove that your selfish pursuit of pleasure is necessary and approved by the Word of God. Let’s call it "family time."

4C. You think yourself no worse and perhaps not as bad as many others. As a matter of fact, you see little or no cause for repentance. Were you assured that your pleasures would soon be over, that within a few days you must lie down in eternal sorrows, in the horrors or despair, you would change your cheerful disposition into the cries and shrieks of the damned. But not before then.

5C. Your heart would cry out a mournful complaint. "Who can dwell with devouring fire? Who can inhabit everlasting burnings?" But this isn’t the case with you, is it? So what if you live without God in the world? So what if you still stand outside the ark of safety? You feel yourself too young to be a Christian; and too young to die.

6C. You now believe that Christ has spilt His blood to purchase for you the pleasures of sin for a season, and the joys of heaven when your youthful time of play has ended. But should guilt, death, and judgment stare you in the face, it would end your fun at once.

7C. At first sight, isn’t it insane to rest short of being saved? And is it not also insane to rejoice and make merry before you have fled to Christ for refuge? But you are charmed with your pleasures, and while your soul is in danger you will, perhaps, be angry if anyone interferes with your well ordered life and attempts to get you to deal seriously with sin and salvation.

8C. You are willing to regulate your amusements and to conduct them with great propriety, only so long as you can hold on to that thing itself which is the joy and delight of your heart. You see, you cannot be brought to a sense of the worth of your soul, and to see that you’re are lost and dead in sin. And here you will rest till you view your conduct in the light of eternity.

9C. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to you that perish. And you must continue without a Savior and forever perish unless you are brought to renounce and hate every evil way and deed. If you insist on fun and enjoyment before you come to Christ your case is serious. Because you’re pleading for your own destruction. Now God warns you where your danger lies. "Rejoice, O young man, and be cheerful, but know thou that for this delightful conduct, I will bring thee into judgment."

10C. The pleasure you insist on is the very thing pointed at and condemned by the Word or God. It would not be difficult to redirect your from your present course were it not delightful to your heart. And in this the danger lies. Every step which you advance by following your heart’s desires carries you farther and farther from God. The more you indulge in sinful pleasures, the less you fear, and the stronger your wicked habits become.

11C. It would not be strange for you to continue in your present course, walking on the broad and downward road. You are only walking according to the course of this world. It’s expected that you will become more hardened in sin and more resistant to conversion over time. It’s quite common for you to continue filling up the measure of your sins with a joyful and a merry heart.

12C. You see, when sinners have for a while defended and excused their sins, it’s common for God to give them up. "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Because God has called and you have refused, now you shall eat of the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices.

1C. The evil days will come when you cannot rejoice and be cheerful in walking in the ways of your heart. And how few of those you know will forsake their youthful vanities, who will choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and who will someday die in the Lord?

2C. And how many young people have gone from their happy lives to judgment with all their sins upon their heads? Our verses tells us that while your energy and health remain you will rejoice and make merry, until God lays His hand upon you and brings you unto judgment.

3C. But you may live on after you have spent the best of your days in sin. Spend your youthful days in vanity, and then you will be confirmed in your sins. And afterwards you’ll live only to ripen for a more dreadful judgment hereafter. In other words, you think you’re going to get saved later, but you won’t.

4C. Did you know that the great revivals of days gone by were known to be generally confined to those about your age? People your age were called by God at the very time when they were just entering the time of life you are presently at. At the moment in time when their hopes and expectations to have fun and commit sin were raised to the highest pitch, suddenly they were stripped of everything. But, of course, the great majority remained unsaved to have fun and make merry, cheerfully storing up judgment for their sin, until wrath came upon them to the uttermost. And they never did truly repent of their folly, until it was too late.

5C. "But after their hardness and impenitent hearts they wilt continue to treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." It turned out that their better days in which they rejoiced, were wholly spent in gathering fuel for their own eternal torments. But let’s leave them in the hand of God. After death, comes the judgment.